A) 






£fM\l 




JAPANESE GIRLS AND 
WOMEN 



BY 



ALICE MABEL BACON 



M 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 

1899 






Copyright, 1891, 
By ALICE MABEL BACON. 

All rights reserved* 



ELEVENTH IMPRESSION. 

By Exchange 

Army And Navy 

Aug* 13.1919 



The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., V. S. A. 
Electrotyped and Printed by EL O. Houghton & Co. 






> 



To 

STEMATZ, THE COUNTESS OYAMA, 

THE NAME OP OUR GIELHOOD's FRD2NDSHD?, UNCHANGED AND 
UNSHAKEN BY THE CHANGES AND SEPARATIONS OP OUR 
MATUREB TEAKS, 

®f)ts Folume 
JS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Childhood 1 

IT. Education 37 

III. Marriage and Divorce . . . .57 

IV. Wife and Mother 84 

V. Odd Age 119 

VI. Court Life 138 

VII. Life in Castle and Yashiki . . .169 
VIII. Samuraj Women . .... 196 

IX. Peasant Women 228 

X. Life in the Cities 262 

XL Domestic Service 299 

Epilogue ........ 327 



PREFACE. 



It seems necessary for a new author to 
give some excuse for her boldness in offer- 
ing to the public another volume upon a 
subject already so well written up as Japan. 
In a field occupied by Griffis, Morse, Greey, 
Lowell, and Rein, what unexplored corner 
can a woman hope to enter ? This is the 
question that will be asked, and that ac- 
cordingly the author must answer. 

While Japan as a whole has been closely 
studied, and while much and varied infor- 
mation has been gathered about the coun- 
try and its people, one half of the popu- 
lation has been left entirely unnoticed, 
passed over with brief mention, or alto- 
gether misunderstood. It is of this neg- 
lected half that I have written, in the hope 
that the whole fabric of Japanese social 



vi PBEFACE. 

life will be better comprehended when the 
women of the country, and so the homes 
that they make, are better known and 
understood. 

The reason why Japanese home-life is 
so little understood by foreigners, even by 
those who have lived long in Japan, is 
that the Japanese, under an appearance of 
frankness and candor, hides an impene- 
trable reserve in regard to all those per- 
sonal concerns which he believes are not 
in the remotest degree the concerns of his 
foreign guest. Only life in the home itself 
can show what a Japanese home may be ; 
and only by intimate association — such as 
no foreign man can ever hope to gain — 
with the Japanese ladies themselves can 
much be learned of the thoughts and daily 
lives of the best Japanese women. 

I have been peculiarly fortunate in hav- 
ing enjoyed the privilege of long and inti- 
mate friendship with a number of Japanese 
ladies, who have spoken with me as freely, 
and shown the details of their lives to me 



PREFACE. Vll 

as openly, as if bound by closest ties of kin- 
dred. Through them, and only through 
them, I have been enabled to study life 
from the point of view of the refined and 
intelligent Japanese women, and have found 
the study so interesting and instructive 
that I have felt impelled to offer to oth- 
ers some part of what I have received 
through the aid of these friends. I have, 
moreover, been encouraged in my work 
by reading, when it was already more than 
half completed, the following words from 
Griffis's " Mikado's Empire : " — 

" The whole question of the position of 
Japanese women — in history, social life, 
education, employments, authorship, art, 
marriage, concubinage, prostitution, benev- 
olent labor, the ideals of literature, popu- 
lar superstitions, etc. — discloses such a 
wide aud fasciuating field of inquiry that 
I wonder no one has as yet entered it." 

In closing, I should say that this work 
is by no means entirely my own. It is, in 
the first place, largely the result of the in- 



Vlll PREFACE. 

terchange of thought through many and 
long conversations with Japanese ladies 
upon the topics herein treated. It has 
also been carefully revised and criticised ; 
and many valuable additions have been 
made to it by Miss Ume Tsuda, teacher 
of English in the Peeresses' School in 
Tokyo, and an old and intimate friend. 
Miss Tsuda is at present in this country, 
on a two years' leave, for purposes of 
further study. She has, amid her many 
duties as a student at Bryn Mawr Col- 
lege, given much time and thought to 
this work; and a large part of whatever 
value it may possess is due to her. 

I would say, too, that in the verification 
of dates, names, and historical incidents, I 
have relied altogether upon Griffis's "Mi- 
kado's Empire" and Rein's "Japan," 
knowing that those two authors represent 
the best that has been done by foreigners 
in the field of Japanese history. 

This work also owes much, not only to 
the suggestions and historical aids con- 



PREFACE. IX 

tained in the " Mikado's Empire," but to 
Mr. Griffis himself, for his careful reading 
of my manuscript, and for his criticisms and 
suggestions. No greater encouragement 
can be given to an inexperienced author 
than the helpful criticism of one who has 
already distinguished himself in the same 
field of labor ; and for just such friendly 
aid my warmest thanks are due to Mr* 
Griffis. 

A. M. B. 

Hampton, Va., February, 1891. 



JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN, 



CHAPTER I. 

CHILDHOOD. 

To the Japanese baby the beginning of 
life is not very different from its beginning 
to babies in the Western world. Its birth, 
whether it be girl or boy, is the cause of 
much rejoicing. As boys alone can carry 
on the family name and inherit titles and 
estates, they are considered of more impor- 
tance, but many a mother's heart is made 
glad by the addition of a daughter to the 
family circle. 

As soon as the event takes place, a spe- 
cial messenger is dispatched to notify rel- 
atives and intimate friends, while formal 
letters of announcement are sent to those 
less closely related. All persons thus noti- 
fied must make an early visit to the new- 
comer, in order to welcome it into the 



2 JAPANESE GIELS AND WOMEN. 

world, and must either take with them or 
send before them some present. Toys, 
pieces of cotton, silk, or cr§pe for the baby's 
dress are regarded as suitable ; and these 
must be accompanied by dried fish or eggs, 
for good luck. Where eggs are sent, they 
are neatly arranged in a covered box, which 
may contain thirty, forty, or even one hun- 
dred eggs. 1 The baby, especially if it be 
the first one in a family, receives many 
presents in the first few weeks of its life, 
and at a certain time proper acknowledg- 
ment must be made and return presents 
sent. This is usually done when the baby 
is thirty days old. 

Both baby and mother have a hard time 
of it for the first few weeks of its life. The 
baby is passed from hand to hand, fussed 
over, and talked to so much by the visitors 
that come in, that it must think this world 
a trying place. The mother, too, is denied 
the rest and quiet she needs, and wears 

1 All presents in Japan must be wrapped in white 
paper, although, except for funerals, this paper must 
have some writing on it, and must be tied with a peculiar 
red and white paper string, in which is inserted the 
noshi, or bit of dried fish, daintily folded in a piece of col- 
ored paper, which is an indispensable accompaniment of 
every present. 



CHILDHOOD. 3 

herself out in the excitement of seeing her 
friends, and the physical exercise of going 
through, so far as possible, the ceremo- 
nious bows and salutations that etiquette 
prescribes. 

On the seventh day the baby receives its 
name. 1 There is no especial ceremony 
connected with this, except that the child's 
birth is formally registered, together with 
its name, at the district office of registra- 
tion, and the household keep holiday in 
honor of the event. A certain kind of rice, 
cooked with red beans, a festival dish 
denoting good fortune, is usually partaken 
of by the family on this occasion. 

The next important event in the baby's 
life is the miya maeri, a ceremony which 

1 A child is rarely given the name of a living' memher 
of the family, or of any friend. The father's name, 
slightly modified, is frequently given to a son, and those 
of ancestors long ago dead are sometimes used. One 
reason for this is prohahly the inconvenience of similar 
names in the same family, and middle names, as a way 
of avoiding this difficulty, are unknown. The father 
usually names the child, but some friend or patron of 
the family may be asked to do it. Names of beautiful 
objects in nature, such as Plum, Snow, Sunshine, Lotos, 
Gold, are commonly used for girls, while boys of the 
lower classes often rejoice in such appellations as Stone, 
Bear, Tiger, etc. To call a child after a person would 
not be considered any especial compliment. 



4 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

corresponds roughly with our christen- 
ing. On the thirtieth day after birth, 
the baby is taken for its first visit to the 
temple. For this visit great preparations 
are made, and the baby is dressed in finest 
silk or crepe, gayly figured, — garments 
made especially for the occasion. Upon 
the dress appears in various places the 
crest of the family, as on all ceremonial 
dresses, whether for young or old, for 
every Japanese family has its crest. Thus 
arrayed, and accompanied by members of 
the family, the young baby is carried to one 
of the Shinto temples, and there placed 
under the protection of the patron deity of 
the temple. This god, chosen from a great 
number of Shinto deities, is supposed to 
become the special guardian of the child 
through life. Offerings are made to the 
god and to the priest, and a blessing is 
obtained ; and the baby is thus formally 
placed under the care of a special deity. 
This ceremony over, there is usually an 
entertainment of some kind at the home of 
the parents, especially if the family be one 
of high rank. Friends are invited, and if 
there are any who have not as yet sent 
in presents, they may give them at this 
time. 



CHILDHOOD. 5 

It is usually on this day that the family 
send to their friends some acknowledg- 
ment of the presents received. This some- 
times consists of the red bean rice, such 
as is prepared for the seventh day cele- 
bration, and sometimes of cakes of mochi, 
or rice paste. A letter of thanks usually 
accompanies the return present. If rice 
is sent, it is put in a haudsome lacquered 
box, the box placed on a lacquered tray, 
and the whole covered with a square of 
crepe or silk, richly decorated. The box, 
the tray, and the cover are of course re- 
turned, and, curious to say, the box must 
be returned unwashed, as it would be very 
unlucky to send it back clean. A piece 
of Japanese paper must be slipped into the 
box after its contents have been removed, 
and box and tray must be given back, just 
as they are, to the messenger. Sometimes 
a box of eggs, or a peculiar kind of dried 
fish, called katsuobushi, is sent with this 
present, when it is desired to make an es- 
pecially handsome return. When as many 
as fifty or one hundred return presents 
of this kind are to be sent, it is no slight 
tax on the mistress of the house to see 
that no one is forgotten, and that all is 



6 JAPANESE GIKLS AND WOMEN. 

property done. As special messengers are 
sent, a number of men are sometimes kept 
busy for two or three days. 

After all these festivities, a quiet, undis- 
turbed life begins for the baby, — a life 
which is neither unpleasant nor unhealth- 
ful. It is not jolted, rocked, or trotted to 
sleep; it is allowed to cry if it chooses, 
without anybody's supposing that the 
world will come to an end because of its 
crying; and its dress is loose and easily put 
on, so that very little time is spent in the 
tiresome process of dressing and undress- 
ing. Under these conditions the baby 
thrives and grows strong and fat ; learns to 
take life with some philosophy, even at a 
very early age ; and is not subject to fits 
of hysterical or passionate crying, brought 
on by much jolting or trotting, or by the 
wearisome process of pinning, buttoning, 
tying of strings, and thrusting of arms 
into tight sleeves. 

The Japanese baby's dress, though not 
as pretty as that of our babies, is in many 
ways much more sensible. It consists of 
as many wide-sleeved, straight, silk, cotton, 
or flannel garments as the season of the 
year may require, — all cut after exactly 



CHILDHOOD. 7 

the same pattern, and that pattern the 
same in shape as the grown-up kimono. 
These garments are fitted, one inside of 
the other, before they are put on ; then 
they are laid down on the floor and the 
baby is laid into them ; a soft belt, attached 
to the outer garment or dress, is tied 
around the waist, and the baby is dressed 
without a shriek or a wail, as simply and 
easily as possible. The baby's dresses, like 
those of our babies, are made long enough 
to cover the little bare feet ; and the 
sleeves cover the hands as well, so pre- 
venting the unmerciful scratching that 
most babies give to their faces, as well as 
keeping the hands warm and dry. 

Babies of the lower classes, within a few 
weeks after birth, are carried about tied 
upon the back of some member of the fam- 
ily, frequently an older sister or brother, 
who is sometimes not more than five or 
six years old. The poorer the family, the 
earlier is the young baby thus put on some 
one's back, and one frequently sees babies 
not more than a month old, with bobbing 
heads and blinking eyes, tied by long bands 
of cloth to the backs of older brothers or 
sisters, and living in the streets in all 



8 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

weathers. When it is cold, the sister's 
haori, or coat, serves as an extra covering 
for the baby as well ; and when the sun is 
hot, the sister's parasol keeps off its rays 
from the bobbing bald head. Living in 
public, as the Japanese babies do, they 
soon acquire an intelligent, interested look, 
and seem to enjoy the games of the elder 
children, upon whose backs they are car- 
ried, as much as the players themselves. 
Babies of the middle classes do not live in 
public in this way, but ride about upon the 
backs of their nurses until they are old 
enough to toddle by themselves, and they 
are not so often seen in the streets ; as 
few but the poorest Japanese, even in the 
large cities, are unable to have a pleasant 
bit of garden in which the children can 
play and take the air. The children of the 
richest families, the nobility, and the im- 
perial family, are never carried about in 
this way. The young child is borne in the 
arms of an attendant, within doors and 
without ; but as this requires the care of 
some one constantly, and prevents the 
nurse from doing anything but care for the 
child, only the richest can afford this 
luxury. With the baby tied to her back, a 



CHILDHOOD. 9 

woman is able to care for a child, and yet 
go on with her household labors, and baby 
watches over mother's or nurse's shoulder, 
between naps taken at all hours, the pro- 
cesses of drawing water, washing and 
cooking rice, and all the varied work of the 
house. Imperial babies are held in the 
arms of some one night and day, from the 
moment of birth until they have learned 
to walk, a custom which seems to render 
the lot of the high-born infant less com- 
fortable in some ways than that of the ple- 
beian child. 

The flexibility of the knees, which is re- 
quired for comfort in the Japanese method 
of sitting, is gained in very early youth by 
the habit of setting a baby down with its 
knees bent under it, instead of with its 
legs out straight before it, as seems to us 
the natural way. To the Japanese, the 
normal way for a baby to sit is with its 
knees bent under it, and so, at a very early 
age, the muscles and tendons of the knees 
are accustomed to what seems to us a most 
unnatural and uncomfortable posture. 1 

1 That the position of the Japanese in sitting is really 
■unnatural and unhygienic, is shown by recent measure- 
ments taken by the surgeons of the Japanese army. 



10 JAPANESE GIELS AND WOMEN. 

Among the lower classes, where there 
are few bathing facilities in the houses, 
babies of a few weeks old are often taken 
to the public bath house and put into the 
hot bath. These Japanese baths are usu- 
ally heated to a temperature of a hundred 
to a hundred and thirteen Fahrenheit, — a 
temperature that most foreigners visiting 
Japan find almost unbearable. To a baby's 
delicate skin, the first bath or two is usu- 
ally a severe trial, but it soon becomes ac- 
customed to the high temperature, and 
takes its bath, as it does everything else, 
placidly and in public. Born into a coun- 
try where cow's milk is never used, the 
Japanese baby is wholly dependent upon 

These measurements prove that the small stature of the 
Japanese is due largely to the shortness of the lower 
limbs, which are out of proportion to the rest of the 
body. The sitting- from early childhood upon the legs 
bent at the knee, arrests the development of that part of 
the body, and produces an actual deformity in the whole 
nation. This deformity is less noticeable among the 
peasants, who stand and walk so much as to secure 
proper development of the legs ; but among merchants, 
literary men, and others of sedentary habits, it is most 
plainly to be seen. The introduction of chairs and tables, 
as a necessary adjunct of Japanese home life, would 
doubtless in time alter the physique of the Japanese as 
a people. 



CHILDHOOD. 11 

its mother for milk, 1 and is not weaned 
entirely until it reaches the age of three or 
four years, and is able to live upon the ordi- 
nary food of the class to which it belongs. 
There is no intermediate stage of bread 
and milk, oatmeal and milk, gruel, or pap 
of some kind ; for the all-important factor 
— milk — is absent from the bill of fare, in 
a land where there is neither " milk for 
babes " nor " strong meat for them that 
are full of age." 

In consequence, partly, of the lack 
of proper nourishment after the child is 
too old to live wholly upon its mother's 
milk, and partly, perhaps, because of 
the poor food that the mothers, even of 
the higher classes, live upon, many ba- 
bies in Japan are afflicted with disagree- 
able skin troubles, especially of the scalp 
and face, — troubles which usually disap- 
pear as soon as the child becomes accus- 
tomed to the regular food of the adult. 
Another consequence, as I imagine, of the 

1 Sometimes, in the old days, riee water was given to 
babies instead of milk, but it was nearly impossible to 
bring - up a baby on this alone. Now both fresh and 
condensed milk are used, where the mother's milk is in- 
sufficient, but only in those parts of Japan where the 
foreign influence is felt. 



12 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

lack of proper food at the teething' period, 
is the early loss of the child's first teeth, 
which usually turn black and decay some- 
time before the second teeth begin to show 
themselves. With the exception of these 
two troubles, Japanese babies seem healthy, 
hearty, and happy to an extraordinary de- 
gree, and show that most of the condi- 
tions of their lives are wholesome. The 
constant out-of-door life and the healthful 
dress serve to make up in considerable 
measure for the poor food, and the Japa- 
nese baby, though small after the manner 
of the race, is usually plump, and of firm, 
hard flesh. One striking characteristic of 
the Japanese baby is, that at a very early 
age it learns to cling like a kitten to the 
back of whoever carries it, so that it is 
really difficult to drop it through careless- 
ness, for the baby looks out for its own 
safety like a young monkey. The straps 
that tie it to the back are sufficient for 
safety ; but the baby, from the age of one 
month, is dependent upon its own exer- 
tions to secure a comfortable position, and 
it soon learns to ride its bearer with con- 
siderable skill, instead of being merely a 
bundle tied to the shoulders. Any one 



CHILDHOOD. 13 

who has ever handled a Japanese baby can 
testify to the amount of intelligence shown 
in this direction at a very early age ; and 
this clinging with arms and legs is, per- 
haps, a valuable part of the training which 
gives to the whole nation the peculiar 
quickness of motion and hardness of 
muscle that characterize them from child- 
hood. It is the agility and muscular 
quality that belong to wild animals, that 
we see something of in the Indian, but to 
a more marked degree in the Japanese, 
especially of the lower classes. 

The Japauese baby's first lessons in walk- 
ing are taken under favorable circum- 
stances. With feet comfortably shod in the 
soft tabi, or mitten - like sock, babies cau 
tumble about as they like, with no bump 
nor bruise, upon the soft matted floors of 
the dwelling houses. There is no furni- 
ture to fall against, and nothing about the 
room to render falling a thing to be feared. 
After learning the art of walking in the 
house, the baby's first attempts out of 
doors are hampered by the zori or geta, — 
a light straw sandal or small wooden clog 
attached to the foot by a strap passing "be- 
tween the toes. At the very beginning the 



14 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

sandal or clog is tied to the baby's foot by- 
bits of string fastened around the ankle, 
but this provision for security is soon dis- 
carded, and the baby patters along like the 
grown people, holding on the geta by the 
strap passing between the toes. This 
somewhat cumbersome and inconvenient 
foot gear must cause many falls at first, 
but baby's experience in the art of balan- 
cing upon people's backs now aids in this 
new art of balancing upon the little wooden 
clogs. Babies of two or three trot about 
quite comfortably in geta that seem to give 
most insecure footing, and older children 
run, jump, hop on one foot, and play all 
manner of active games upon heavy clogs 
that would wrench our ankles and toes out 
of all possibility of usefulness. This foot 
gear, while producing an awkward, shuf- 
fling gait, has certain advantages over our 
own, especially for children whose feet are 
growing rapidly. The geta, even if out- 
grown, can never cramp the toes nor com- 
press the ankles. If the foot is too long 
for the clog the heel laps over behind, but 
the toes do not suffer, and the use of the 
geta strengthens the ankles by affording 
no artificial aid or support, and giving to 



CHILDHOOD. 15 

all the muscles of foot and leg free play, 
with the foot in a natural position. The 
toes of the Japanese retain their prehensile 
qualities to a surprising degree, and are 
used, not only for grasping the foot gear, 
but among mechanics almost like two sup- 
plementary hands, to aid in holding the 
thing worked upon. Each toe knows its 
work and does it, and they are not reduced 
to the dull uniformity of motion that char- 
acterizes the toes of a leather- shod nation. 
The distinction between the dress of the 
boy and the girl, that one notices from 
childhood, begins in babyhood. A very 
young baby wears red and yellow, but soon 
the boy is dressed in sober colors, — blues, 
grays, greens, and browns ; while the lit- 
tle girl still wears the most gorgeous of 
colors and the largest of patterns in her 
garments, red being the predominant hue. 
The sex, even of a young baby, may be dis- 
tinguished by the color of its clothing. 
White, the garb of mourning in Japan, is 
never used for children, but the minutest 
babies are dressed in bright-colored gar- 
ments, and of the same materials — wadded 
cotton, silk, or crepe — as those worn by 
adults of their social grade. As these 



16 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

dresses are not as easily washed as our own 
cambric and flannel baby clothes, there is 
a loss among the poorer classes in the mat- 
ter of cleanliness ; and the gorgeous soiled 
gowns are not as attractive as the more 
washable white garments in which our 
babies are dressed. For model clothing 
for a baby, I would suggest a combination 
of the Japanese style with the foreign, 
easily washed materials, — a combination 
that I have seen used in their own fami- 
lies by Japanese ladies educated abroad, 
and one in which the objections to the Jap- 
anese style of dress are entirely obviated. 

The Japanese baby begins to practice the 
accomplishment of talking at a very early 
age, for its native language is singularly 
happy in easy expressions for children ; 
and little babies will be heard chattering 
away in soft, easily spoken words long be- 
fore they are able to venture alone from 
their perches on their mothers' or nurses' 
backs. A few simple words express much, 
and cover all wants. Iya expresses discon- 
tent or dislike of any kind, and is also used 
for " no " ; mam ma means food ; be be is the 
dress ; ta ta is the sock, or house shoe, etc. 
We find many of the same sounds as in the 



CHILDHOOD. 17 

baby language of English, with meanings 
totally different. The baby is not troubled 
with difficult grammatical changes, for the 
Japanese language has few inflections ; and 
it is too young to be puzzled with the intri- 
cacies of the various expressions, denoting 
different degrees of politeness, which are 
the snare and the despair of the foreigner 
studying Japanese. 

As our little girl emerges from baby- 
hood she finds the life opening before her 
a bright and happy one, but one hedged 
about closely by the proprieties, and one 
in which, from babyhood to old age, she 
must expect to be always under the control 
of one of the stronger sex. Her position 
will be an honorable and respected one 
only as she learns in her youth the lesson 
of cheerful obedience, of pleasing manners, 
and of personal cleanliness and neatness. 
Her duties must be always either within 
the house, or, if she belongs to the peasant 
class, on the farm. There is no career or 
vocation open to her : she must be depen- 
dent always upon either father, husband, 
or son, and her greatest happiness is to be 
gained, not by cultivation of the intellect, 
but by the early acquisition of the self-con- 



18 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

trol which is expected of all Japanese wo- 
men to an even greater degree than of the 
men. This self-control must consist, not 
simply in the concealment of all the out- 
ward signs of any disagreeable emotion, — 
whether of grief, anger, or pain, — but in 
the assumption of a cheerful smile and 
agreeable manner under even the most 
distressing of circumstances. The duty of 
self-restraint is taught to the little girls of 
the family from the tenderest years ; it is 
their great moral lesson, and is expatiated 
upon at all times by their elders. The little 
girl must sink herself entirely, must give up 
always to others, must never show emotions 
except such as will be pleasing to those 
about her : this is the secret of true polite- 
ness, and must be mastered if the woman 
wishes to be well thought of and to lead a 
happy life. The effect of this teaching is 
seen in the attractive but dignified manners 
of the Japanese women, and even of the 
very little girls. They are not forward nor 
pushing, neither are they awkwardly bash- 
ful ; there is no self-consciousness, neither 
is there any lack of savoir /aire ; a childlike 
simplicity is united with a womanly con- 
sideration for the comfort of those around 



CHILDHOOD. 19 

them. A Japanese child seems to be the 
product of a more perfect civilization than 
our own, for it comes into the world with 
little of the savagery and barbarian bad 
manners that distinguish children in this 
country, and the first ten or fifteen years of 
its life do not seem to be passed in one long 
struggle to acquire a coating of good man- 
ners that will help to render it less obnox- 
ious in polite society. How much of the 
politeness of the Japanese is the result of 
training, and how much is inherited from 
generations of civilized ancestors, it is diffi- 
cult to tell; but my impression is, that 
babies are born into the world with a good 
start in the matter of manners, and that the 
uniformly gentle and courteous treatment 
that they receive from those about them, 
together with the continual verbal teach- 
ing of the principle of self-restraint and 
thoughtfulness of others, produce with very 
little difficulty the universally attractive 
manners of the people. One curious thing 
in a Japanese household is to see the for- 
malities that pass between brothers and 
sisters, and the respect paid to age by 
every member of the family. The grand- 
father and grandmother come first of all in 



20 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

everything, — no one at table must be 
helped before them in any case ; after them 
come the father and mother; and lastly, 
the children according to their ages. A 
younger sister must always wait for the 
elder and pay her due respect, even in the 
matter of walking into the room before 
her. The wishes and convenience of the 
elder, rather than of the younger, are to 
be consulted in everything, and this les- 
son must be learned early by children. 
The difference in years may be slight, but 
the elder-born has the first right in all 
cases. 

Our little girl's place in the family is a 
pleasant one : she is the pet and plaything 
of father and elder brothers, and she is 
never saluted by any one in the family, ex- 
cept her parents, without the title of re- 
spect due to her position. If she is the 
eldest daughter, to the servants she is 
Jo Sama, literally, young lady ; to her own 
brothers and sisters, Ane San, elder sister. 
Should she be one of the younger ones, 
her given name, preceded by the honorific 
and followed by San, meaning Miss, 
will be the name by which she will be 
called by younger brothers and sisters, and 



CHILDHOOD. 21 

by the servants. As she passes from baby- 
hood to girlhood, and from girlhood to 
womanhood, she is the object of much love 
and care and solicitude ; but she does not 
grow up irresponsible or untrained to meet 
the duties which womanhood will surely 
bring to her. She must learn all the du- 
ties that fall upon the wife and mother of 
a Japanese household, as well as obtain 
the instruction in books and mathematics 
that is coming to be more and more a 
necessity for the women of Japan. She 
must take a certain responsibility in the 
household ; must see that tea is made for 
the guests* who may be received by her 
parents, — in all but the families of highest 
rank, must serve it herself. Indeed, it is 
quite the custom in families of the higher 
classes, should a guest, whom it is desired 
to receive with especial honor, dine at the 
house, to serve the meal, not with the 
family, but separately for the father and 
his visitor ; and it is the duty of the wife 
or daughter, often er the latter, to wait on 
them. This is in honor of the guest, not 
on account of the lack of servants, for there 
may be any number of them within call, or 
even in the back part of the room, ready 



22 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

to receive from the hands of the young girl 
what she has removed. She must, there- 
fore, know the proper etiquette of the 
table, how to serve carefully and neatly, 
and, above all, have the skill to ply the sake 
bottle, so that the house may keep up its 
reputation for hospitality. Should guests 
arrive in the absence of her parents, she 
must receive and entertain them until the 
master or mistress of the house returns. 
She also feels a certain care about the be- 
havior of the younger members of the 
family, especially in the absence of the 
parents. In these various ways she is 
trained for taking upon herself the cares 
of a household when the time comes. In 
all but the very wealthiest and most aristo- 
cratic families, the daughters of the house 
do a large part of the simple housework. 
In a house with no furniture, no carpets, 
no bric-a-brac, no mirrors, picture frames 
or glasses to be cared for, no stoves or 
furnaces, no windows to wash, a large part 
of the cooking to be done outside, and no 
latest styles to be imitated in clothing, the 
amount of work to be done by women is 
considerably diminished, but still there re- 
mains enough to take a good deal of time. 



CHILDHOOD. 23 

Every morning there are the beds to be 
rolled up and stored away in the closet, the 
mosquito nets to be taken down, the rooms 
to be swept, dusted, and aired before break- 
fast. Besides this, there is the washing 
and polishing of the engawa, or piazza, 
which runs around the outside of a Japa- 
nese house between the sliojl, or paper 
screens that serve as windows, and the 
amado, or sliding, shutters, that are closed 
only at night, or during heavy, driving 
rains. Breakfast is to be cJoked and 
served, dishes to be washed (in cold water); 
and then perhaps there is marketing to be 
done, either at shops outside or from the 
vendors of fish and vegetables, who bring 
their huge baskets of provisions to the 
door ; but after these duties are performed, 
it is possible to sit down quietly to the 
day's work of sewing, studying, or what- 
ever else may suit the taste or necessities 
of the housewife. Of sewing there is al- 
ways a good deal to be done, for many 
Japanese dresses must be taken to pieces 
wheuever they are washed, and are turned, 
dyed, and made over again and again, so 
long as there is a shred of the original 
material left to work upon. There is wash- 



24 JAPANESE GIELS AND WOMEN. 

ing, too, to be done, although neither with 
hot water nor soap; and in the place of 
ironing, the cotton garments, which are 
usually washed without ripping, must be 
hung up on a bamboo pole passed through 
the armholes, and pulled smooth and 
straight before they dry; and the silk, 
always ripped into breadths before wash- 
ing, must be smoothed while wet upon a 
board which is set in the sun until the silk 
is dry, 

Then there are the every day dishes 
which our Japanese maiden must learn to 
prepare. The proper boiling of rice is in 
itself a study. The construction of the va- 
rious soups which form the staple in the 
Japanese bill of fare ; the preparation of 
mochi, a kind of rice dough, which is 
prepared at the New Year, or to send to 
friends on various festival occasions: these 
and many other branches of the culinary 
art must be mastered before the young girl 
is prepared to assume the cares of married 
life. 

But though the little girl's life is not 
without its duties and responsibilities, it is 
also not at all lacking in simple and inno- 
cent pleasures. First among the annual 



CHILDHOOD. 25 

festivals, and bringing with it much mirth 
and frolic, comes the Feast of the New 
Year. At this time father, mother, and 
all older members of the family lay aside 
their work and their dignity, and join in 
the fun and sports that are characteristic 
of this season. Worries and anxieties are 
set aside with the close of the year, and the 
first beams of the New Year's sun bring in 
a season of unlimited joy for the chil- 
dren. For about two weeks the festival 
lasts, and the festal spirit remains through 
the whole month, prompting to fuu and 
amusements of all kinds. From early 
morning until bedtime the children wear 
their prettiest clothes, in which they play 
without rebuke. Guests come and go, 
bringing congratulations to the family, 
and often gifts for all. The children's 
stock of toys is thus greatly increased, and 
the house overflows with the good things 
of the season, of which mochi, or cake made 
from rice dough, prepared always especially 
for this time, is one of the most important 
articles. 

The children are taken with their pa- 
rents to make New Year's visits to their 
friends and to offer them congratulations, 



26 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

and much they enjoy this, as, dressed in 
their best, they ride from house to house 
in jinrikishas. 1 

And then, during* the long", happy even- 
ing's, the whole family, including even the 
old grandfather and grandmother, join in 
merry games ; the servants, too, are invited 
to join the family party, and, without seem- 
ing forward or out of place, enter into 
the games with zest. One of the favorite 
games is " Hyaku nin ishu," literally " The 
poems of a hundred poets." It consists of 
two hundred cards, on each of which is 
printed either the first or last half of one 
of the hundred famous Japanese poems 
which give the name to the game. The 
poems are well known to all Japanese, of 
whatever sort or condition. All Japanese 
poems are short, containing only thirty- 
two syllables, and have a natural division 
into two parts. The one hundred cards 
containing the latter half of the poems are 
dealt and laid out in rows, face upward, 
before the players. One person is ap- 

1 Jinrikisha, or kuruma, a small, light carriage, usually 
with a hroad top, which is drawn by a man. The jinrikisha 
is the commonest of all vehicles now in use in Japan. 
Jinrikisha-m&n and kurumaya are terms commonly used 
for the runner who draws the carriage. 



CHILDHOOD. 27 

pointed reader. To him are given the re- 
maining hundred cards, and lie reads the 
beginnings of the poems in whatever order 
they come from the shuffled pack. Skill 
in the game consists in remembering 
quickly the line following the one read, 
and rapidly finding the card on which it is 
written. Especially does the player watch 
his own cards, and if he finds there the 
end of the poem, the beginning of which 
has just been read, he must pick it up be- 
fore any one sees it and lay it aside. If 
some one else spies the card first, he seizes 
it and gives to the careless player several 
cards from his own baud. Whoever first 
disposes of all his cards is the winner. 
The players usually arrange themselves in 
two lines down the middle of the room, and 
the two sides play against each other, the 
game not being ended until either one side 
or the other has disposed of all its cards. 
The game requires great quickness of 
thought and of motion, and is invaluable 
in giving to all young people an education 
in the classical poetry of their own nation, 
as well as being a source of great merri- 
ment and jollity among young and old. 
Scattered throughout the year are va- 



28 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

rious flower festivals, when, often with her 
whole family, our little girl visits the 
famous gardens where the plum, the 
cherry, the chrysanthemum, the iris, or 
the azalea attain their greatest loveliness, 
and spends the day out of doors in aes- 
thetic enjoyment of the beauties of nature 
supplemented by art. And then there is 
the feast most loved in the whole year, the 
Feast of Dolls, when on the third day of the 
third month the great fire-proof storehouse 
gives forth its treasures of dolls, — in an 
old family, many of them hundreds of years 
old, — and for three days, with all their 
belongings of tiny furnishings in silver, 
lacquer, and porcelain, they reign supreme, 
arranged on red -covered shelves in the 
finest room of the house. Most prominent 
among the dolls are the effigies of the Em- 
peror and Empress in antique court cos- 
tume, seated in dignified calm, each on a 
lacquered dais. Near them are the figures 
of the five court musicians in their robes 
of office, each with his instrument. Be- 
side these dolls, which are always present 
and form the central figures at the feast, 
numerous others, more plebeian, but more 
lovable, find places on the lower shelves, 



CHILDHOOD. 29 

and the array of dolls' furnishings which 
is brought out on these occasions is some- 
thing marvelous. It was my privilege to 
be present at the Feast of Dolls in the 
house of one of the Tokugawa daimios, a 
house in which the old forms and cere- 
monies were strictly observed, and over 
which the wave of foreign innovation had 
passed so slightly that even the calendar 
still remained unchanged, and the feast 
took place upon the third day of the third 
month of the old Japanese year, instead of 
on the third day of March, which is the 
usual time for it now. At this house, 
where the dolls had been accumulating for 
hundreds of years, five or six broad, red- 
covered shelves, perhaps twenty feet long 
or more, were completely filled with them 
and with their belongings. The Emperor 
and Empress appeared again and again, as 
well as the five court musicians, and the 
tiny furnishings and utensils were wonder- 
fully costly and beautiful. Before each 
Emperor and Empress were set an elegant 
lacquered table service, tray, bowls, cups, 
sake pots, rice buckets, etc., all complete, 
and in each utensil was placed the appro- 
priate variety of food. The sake used on 






30 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

this occasion is a sweet, white liquor, 
brewed especially for this feast, as different 
from the ordinary sake as sweet cider is 
from the hard cider upon which a man 
may drink himself into a state of intoxica- 
tion. Besides the table service, everything 
that an imperial doll can be expected to 
need or desire is placed upon the shelves. 
Lacquered norimono, or palanquins ; lac- 
quered bullock carts, drawn by bow-legged 
black bulls, — these were the conveyances 
of the great in Old Japan, and these, in 
minute reproductions, are placed upon the 
red-covered shelves. Tiny silver and brass 
hibachi, or fire boxes, are there, with their 
accompanying tongs and charcoal baskets, 
— whole kitchens, with everything re- 
quired for cooking the finest of Japa- 
nese feasts, as finely made as if for actual 
use, all the necessary toilet apparatus, — 
combs, mirrors, utensils for blackening the 
teeth, for shaving the eyebrows, for redden- 
ing the lips and whitening the face, — all 
these things are there to delight the souls 
of all the little girls who may have the op- 
portunity to behold them. For three days 
the imperial effigies are served sumptu- 
ously at each meal, and the little girls of 



CHILDHOOD. 31 

the family take pleasure in serving the im- 
perial majesties ; but when the feast ends, 
the dolls and their belongings are packed 
away in their boxes, and lodged in the fire- 
proof warehouse for another year. 

The Tokugawa collection, of which I 
have spoken, is remarkably full and costly, 
for it has been making for hundreds of 
years in one of the younger branches of a 
family which for two and a half centuries 
was possessed of almost imperial power, 
and lived in more than imperial luxury ; 
but there are few households so poor that 
they do not from year to year accumulate 
a little store of toys wherewith to cele- 
brate the feast, and, whether the toys are 
many or few, the feast is the event of 
the year in the lives of the little girls of 
Japan. 

Beside the regular feasts at stated sea- 
sons, our little girl has a great variety of 
toys and games, some belonging to par- 
ticular seasons, some played at any time 
during the year. At the New Year the 
popular out-of-door games are battledoor 
and shuttlecock, and ball. There is no 
prettier sight, to my mind, than a group 
of little girls in their many-colored wide- 



32 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

sleeved dresses playing with battledoor or 
ball. The graceful, rhythmic motion of 
their bodies, the bright upturned eyes, the 
laughing faces, are set off to perfection by 
the coloring of their flowing drapery ; and 
their agility on their high, lacquered clogs 
is a constant source of wonder and ad- 
miration to any one who has ever made 
an effort to walk upon the clumsy things. 
There are dolls, too, that are not relegated 
to the storehouse when the Feast of Dolls 
is ended, but who are the joy and comfort 
of their little mothers during the whole 
year ; and at every lavan-ho-ba, or bazaar, 
an endless variety of games, puzzles, pic- 
tures to be cut out and glued together, and 
amusements of all kinds, may be purchased 
at extremely low rates. There is no dearth 
of games for our little girl, and many 
pleasant hours are spent in the household 
sitting room with games, or conundrums, 
or stories, or the simple girlish chatter 
that elicits constant laughter from sheer 
youthful merriment. 

As for fairy tales, so dear to the hearts 
of children in every country, the Japanese 
child has her full share. Often she listens, 
half asleep, while cuddling under the warm 



CHILDHOOD. 33 

quilted cover of the kotatsn, 1 in the cold 
winter evenings, to the drowsy voice of the 
old grandmother or nurse, who carries her 
away on the wings of imagination to the 
wonderful palace of the sea gods, or to the 
haunts of the terrible oni, monsters with 
red, distorted faces and fearful horns. 
Momotaro, the Peach Boy, with his won- 
derful feats in the conquest of the oni, is 
her hero, until he is supplanted by the 
more real ones of Japanese history. 

There are occasional all-day visits to the 
theatre, too, where, seated on the floor in 
a box, railed off from those adjoining, our 
little girl, in company with her mother and 
sisters, enjoys, though with paroxysms of 
horror and fear, the heroic historical plays 
which are now almost all that is left of the 
heroic old Japan. Here she catches the 
spirit of passionate loyalty that belonged 
to those days, forms her ideals of what a 
noble Japanese woman should be willing 
to do for parents or husband, and comes 
away taught, as she could be by no other 

1 Kotatsu, a charcoal fire in a brazier or a small fire- 
place in the floor, over which a wooden frame is set and 
the whole covered by a quilt. The family sit about it in 
cold weather with the quilt drawn up over the feet and 
knees. 



34 JAPANESE GIELS AND WOMEN. 

teaching, what the spirit was that ani- 
mated her ancestors, — what spirit must 
animate her, should she wish to he a 
worthy descendant of the women of old. 

Among these surroundings, with these 
duties and amusements, our little girl 
grows to womanhood. The unconscious 
and beautiful spirit of her childhood is not 
driven away at the dawn of womanhood by 
thoughts of beaux, of coming out in so- 
ciety, of a brief career of flirtation and con- 
quest, and at the end as fine a marriage, 
either for love or money, as her imagina- 
tion can picture. She takes no thought 
for these things herself, and her inter- 
course with young men, though free and 
unconstrained, has about it no grain of 
flirtation or romantic interest. When the 
time comes for her to marry, her father 
will have her meet some eligible young 
man, and both she and the young man will 
know, when they are brought together, 
what is the end in view, and will make up 
their minds about the matter. But until 
that time conies, the modest Japanese 
maiden carries on no flirtations, thinks 
nothing of men except as higher beings to 
be deferred to and waited on, and preserves 



CHILDHOOD. 35 

the childlike innocence of manner, com- 
bined with a serene dignity under all cir- 
cumstances, that is so noticeable a trait 
in the Japanese woman from childhood to 
old age. 

The Japanese woman is, under this dis- 
cipline, a finished product at the age of 
sixteen or eighteen. She is pure, sweet, 
and amiable, with great power of self-con- 
trol, and a knowledge of what to do upon 
all occasions. The higher part of her na- 
ture is little developed ; no great religious 
truths have lifted her soul above the world 
into a clearer and higher atmosphere ; but 
as far as she goes, in regard to all the little 
things of daily life, she is bright, industri- 
ous, sweet-tempered, and attractive, and 
prepared to do well her duty, when that 
duty comes to her, as wife and mother and 
mistress of a household. The highest 
principle upon which she is taught, to act 
is obedience, even to the point of violat- 
ing all her finest feminine instincts, at the 
command of father or husband; and acting 
under that principle, she is capable of an 
entire self-abnegation such as few women 
of any race can achieve. 

With the close of her childhood, the 



36 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

happiest period in the life of a Japanese 
woman closes. The discipline that she 
has received so far, repressive and constant 
as it has often been, has been from kind 
and loving parents. She has freedom, to 
a certain degree, such as is unknown to 
any other country in Asia. In the home 
she is truly loved, often the pet and play- 
thing of the household, though not receiv- 
ing the caresses and words of endearment 
that children in America expect as a right, 
for love in Japan is undemonstrative. 1 But 
just at the time when her mind broadens, 
and the desire for knowledge and self- 
improvement develops, the restraints and 
checks upon her become more severe. Her 
sphere seems to grow narrower, difficulties 
one by one increase, and the young girl, 
who sees life before her as something 
broad and expansive, who looks to the 
future with expectant joy, becomes, in a 
few years, the weary, disheartened woman. 

1 Kisses are unknown, and regarded by conservative 
Japanese as an animal and disgusting way of expressing 
affection. 



CHAPTER II. 

EDUCATION. 

So far we have spoken only of the domes- 
tic training" of a Japanese girl. That part 
of her education that she gains through 
teachers and schools must be the subject 
of a separate chapter. Japan differs from 
most Oriental countries in the fact that 
her women are considered worthy of a cer- 
tain amount of the culture that comes from 
the study of books ; and although, until 
recently, schools for girls were unknown iu 
the empire, nevertheless every woman, ex- 
cept those of the lower classes, received in- 
struction in the ordinary written language, 
while some were well versed in the Chiuese 
classics and the poetic art. These, with 
some musical accomplishment, an acquaint- 
ance with etiquette and the art of arrang- 
ing flowers, of making the ceremonial tea, 
and in many cases not only of writing a 
beautiful hand, but of flower-painting as 
well, in the old days made up the whole of 



38 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

an ordinary woman's education. Among 
the lower classes, especially the merchant 
class, instruction was sometimes given in 
the various pantomimic dances which one 
sees most frequently presented hy profes- 
sional dancing girls. The art of dancing 
is not usually practiced by women of the 
higher classes, hut among the daughters of 
the merchants special dances were learned 
for exhibition at home, or even at the 
matsuri or religious festival, and their per- 
formance was for the amusement of spec- 
tators, and not especially for the pleasure 
of the dancers themselves. These dances 
are modest and graceful, but from the fact 
that they are always learned for entertain- 
ing an audience, however small and select, 
and are most frequently performed by pro- 
fessional dancers of questionable character, 
the more refined and higher class Japa- 
nese do not care especially to have their 
daughters learn them. 

In the old days, little girls were not sent 
to school, but, going to the house of a 
private teacher, received the necessary in- 
struction in reading, and writing. The 
writing and reading at the beginning, are 
taught simultaneously, the teacher writing 



EDUCATION. 39 

a letter upon a sheet of paper and telling" 
the scholar its name, and the scholar writ- 
ing 1 it over and over until, by the time she 
has acquired the necessary skill in writing 
it, both name and form are indelibly im- 
printed upon her memory. To write, with 
a brush dipped in India ink, upon soft 
paper, the hand entirely without support, is 
an art that seldom can be acquired by a 
grown person, but when learned in child- 
hood it gives great deftness in whatever 
other art may be subsequently studied. 
This is perhaps the reason why the Japa- 
nese value a good handwriting more 
highly than any other accomplishment, for 
it denotes a manual dexterity that is the 
secret of success in all the arts, and one 
who writes the Chinese characters well and 
rapidly can quickly learn to do anything 
else with the fingers. 

The fault that one finds with the Japa- 
nese system — a fault that lies deeper than 
the mere methods of teaching, and has its 
root in the ideographic character of the 
written language — is that, while it culti- 
vates the memory and powers of observa- 
tion to a remarkable extent, and while it 
gives great skill in the use of the fingers, 



40 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

it affords little opportunity for the devel- 
opment of the reasoning powers. 1 The 

1 The Japanese written language is a strange combina- 
tion of Chinese and Japanese, to read which a knowledge 
of the Chinese characters is necessary. Chinese literature 
written in the Chinese ideographs, which of course give 
no clue to the sound, are read by Japanese with the 
Japanese rendering of the words, and the Japanese order 
of words in the sentence. When there have not been 
exact equivalent Japanese words, a Chinese term has 
come into use, so that much corrupt Chinese is now well 
engrafted into the Japanese language, both written and 
spoken. In the forming of new words and technical 
terms Chinese words are used, as the Greek and Latin 
are here. There is probably no similarity in the origin 
of the two languages, but the Japanese borrowed from 
the Chinese about the sixth century A. D. their clev- 
erly planned but most complex method of expressing 
thought in writing. The introduction of the Chinese lit- 
erature has done much for Japan, and to master this 
language is one of the essentials in the education of every 
boy. At least seven or eight thousand characters must 
be learned for daily use, and there are several different 
styles of writing each of them. For a scholar, twice as 
many, or even more, must be mastered in order to read 
the variolas works in that rich literature. 

The Japanese language contains a syllabary of forty- 
eight letters, and in books and newspapers for the com- 
mon people is printed, by the side of the Chinese charac- 
ter, the rendering of it, in the letters of the kana, or 
Japanese alphabet. 

A Japanese woman is not expected to do much in the 
study of Chinese. She will, of course, learn a few of the 
most common characters, such as are used in letter-writ- 
ing, and for the rest she wDl read by the help of the 
Icana. 



EDUCATION. 41 

years of study that are required for master- 
ing the written language, so as to he ahle 
to grasp the thoughts already given to the 
world, leave comparatively little time for 
the conducting of any continuous thought 
on one's own account, and so we find in 
Japanese scholars — whether boys or girls 
— quickness of apprehension, retentive 
memories, industry and method in their 
study of their lessons, hut not much origi- 
nality of thought. This result comes, I 
believe, from the nature of the written 
language and the difficulties that attend 
the mastery of it; as a consequence of 
which, an educated man or woman be- 
comes simply a student of other men's 
thoughts and sayings about things instead 
of being a student of the things themselves. 
Music in Japan is an accomplishment 
reserved almost entirely for women, for 
priests, and for blind men. It seems to 
me quite fortunate that the musical art 
is not more generally practiced, as Japa- 
nese music, as a rule, is far from agree- 
able to the untrained ear of the outside 
barbarian. The koto is the pleasautest of 
the Japanese instruments, but probably on 
account of its large size, which makes it 



42 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

inconvenient to keep in a small Japanese 
house, it is used most among the higher 
classes, from the samurai 1 upwards. The 
koto is an embryo piano, a horizontal 
sounding-board, some six feet long, upon 
which are stretched strings supported by 
ivory bridges. It is played by means of 
ivory finger-tips fitted to the thumb, fore- 
finger, and middle finger of each hand, and 
gives forth agreeable sounds, not unlike 
those of the harp. The player sits before 
the instrument on knees and heels, in the 
ordinary Japanese attitude, and her mo- 
tions are very graceful and pretty as she 
touches the strings, often supplementing 
the strains of the instrument with her 
voice. The teaching of this instrument 
and of the samisen, or Japanese guitar, is 
almost entirely in the hands of blind men, 
who in Japan support themselves by the 
two professions of music and massage, — 
all the blind, who cannot learn the former, 
becoming adepts in the latter profession. 
The arrangement of flowers is taught as 

1 The samurai in the feudal times were the hereditary 
retainers of a daimio, or feudal lord. They formed the 
military and literary class. For further information, see 
chap, viii., on Samurai Women. 



EDUCATION. 43 

a fine art, and much time may be spent in 
learning how, by clipping, bending, and 
fixing in its place in the vase, each spray 
and twig may be made to look as if actu- 
ally growing, for flower arranging is not 
merely to show the flower itself, but in- 
cludes the proper arrangement of the 
branches, twigs, and leaves of plants. The 
flower plays only a small part, and is not 
used in decoration, except on the branch 
and stem as it is in nature, and the art 
consists in the preservation of the natural 
bend and growth when fixed in the vase. 
In every case, each branch has certain 
curves, which must be in harmony with the 
whole. Branches of pine, bamboo, and the 
flowering plum are much used. 

Teachers spend much time in showing 
proper and improper combinations of dif- 
ferent flowers, as well as the arrangement 
of them. Many different styles have come 
up, originated by the famous teachers who 
have founded various schools of the art, — 
an art which is unique and exceedingly 
popular, requiring artistic talent aud a 
cultivated eye. One often sees, on going 
into the guest room of a Japanese house, a 
vase containing gracefully arranged flow- 



44 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

ers set in the tohonoma, or raised alcove of 
the room, under the solitary kakemono 1 
that forms the chief ornament of the 
apartment. As these two things, the vase 
of flowers and the hanging scroll, are the 
only adornments, it is more necessary that 
the flowers should be carefully arranged, 
than in our crowded rooms, where a vase 
of flowers may easily escape the eye, per- 
plexed by the multitude of objects which 
surround it. 

The ceremonial tea must not be con- 
founded with the ordinary serving of tea 
for refreshment. The proper making, and 
serving, and drinking of the ceremonial 
tea is the most formal of social observances, 
each step in which is prescribed by a rigid 
code of etiquette. The tea, instead of 
being the whole leaf, such as is used for 
ordinary occasions, is a fine, green powder. 
The infusion is made, not in a small pot, 
from which it is poured out into cups, 
but in a bowl, into which the hot water is 
poured from a dipper on to the powdered 
tea. The mixture is stirred with a bam- 
boo whisk until it foams, then handed with 

1 Kakemono, a hanging 1 scroll, upon which a picture is 
painted, or some poem or sentiment written. 



EDUCATION. 45 

much ceremony to the guest, who takes it 
with equal ceremony and drinks it from 
the howl, emptying the receptacle at three 
gulps. Should there be a number of guests, 
tea is made for each in turn, in the order 
of their rank, in the same bowl. For this 
ceremonial tea, a special set of utensils is 
used, all of antique and severely simple 
style. The charcoal used for heating the 
water is of a peculiar variety ; and the 
room in which the tea is made and served 
is built for that special purpose, and kept 
sacred for that use. This art, which is 
often part of the education of women of 
the higher classes, is taught by regular 
teachers, often by gentlewomen who have 
fallen into distressed circumstances. I re- 
member with great vividness a visit paid 
to an old lady living near a provincial 
city of Japan, who had for years supported 
herself by giving lessons in this politest 
of arts. Her little house, of the daintiest 
and neatest type, seemed filled to over- 
flowing by three foreigners, whom she re- 
ceived with the courtliest of welcomes. At 
the request of my friend, an American lady 
engaged in missionary work in that part of 
the country, she gave us a lesson in the 



46 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

etiquette of the tea ceremony. Every mo- 
tion, from the bringing in and arranging 
of the utensils to the final rinsing and 
wiping of the tea bowl, was according to 
rules strictly laid down, and the whole 
ceremony had more the solemnity of a re- 
ligious ritual than the lightness and gayety 
of a social occasion. 

Etiquette of all kinds is not left in 
Japan to chance, to be learned by observa- 
tion and imitation of any model that may 
present itself, but is taught regularly by 
teachers who make a specialty of it. Every- 
thing in the daily life has its rules, aud the 
etiquette teacher has them all at her fingers' 
ends. There have been several famous 
teachers of etiquette, and they have formed 
systems which differ in minor points, while 
agreeing in the principal rules. The eti- 
quette of bowing, the position of the body, 
the arms, and the head while saluting, the 
methods of shutting and opening the door, 
rising and sitting down on the floor, the 
manner of serving a meal, or tea, are all, 
with the minutest details, taught to the 
young girls, who, I imagine, find it rather 
irksome. I know two young girls of new 
Japan who find nothing so wearisome as 






EDUCATION. 



47 



their etiquette lesson, and would gladly be 
excused from it. I have heard them, after 
their teacher had left, slyly make fun of 
her stiff and formal manners. Such people 
as she will, I fear, soon belong only to the 
past, though it still remains to be seen 
how much of European manners will be 
engrafted on the old formalities of Japa- 
nese life. It is, perhaps, because of this 
regular teaching in the ways of polite soci- 
ety, that the Japanese girl seems never at 
a loss, even under unusual circumstances, 
but bears herself with self-possession in 
places where young girls in America would 
be embarrassed and awkward. 

But the Japanese are rapidly finding out 
that this busy nineteenth century gives 
little time for learning how to shut and 
open doors in the politest manner, and in- 
deed such things under the newly estab- 
lished school system are now relegated en- 
tirely to the girls' schools, the boys having 
no lessons in etiquette. 

The method of teaching flower-painting 
is so interesting that I must speak of it 
before I leave the subject of accomplish- 
ments. I have said that the acquisition of 
skill in writing the Chinese characters was 



48 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

the best possible preparation for skill in all 
other arts. This is especially true of the 
art of painting, which is simply the next 
step, after writing has been learned. The 
painting master, when he comes to the 
house, brings no design as a model, but 
sits down on the floor before the little 
desk, and on a sheet of paper paints with 
great rapidity the design that he wishes 
the pupil to copy. It may be simply two 
or three blades of grass upon which the 
pupil makes a beginning, but she is ex- 
pected to make her picture with exactly 
the same number of bold strokes that the 
master puts into his. Again and again 
she blunders her strokes on to a sheet of 
paper, until at last, when sheet after sheet 
has been spoiled, she begins to see some 
semblance of the master's copy in her own 
daub. She perseveres, making copy after 
copy, until she is able from memory to put 
upon the paper at a moment's notice the 
three blades of grass to her master's satis- 
faction. Only then can she go on to a 
new copy, and only after many such de- 
signs have been committed to memory, 
and the free, dashing stroke necessary for 
Japanese painting has been acquired* is 



EDUCATION. 49 

she allowed to undertake any copying from 
nature, or original designing. 

I have dwelt thus far only upon the en- 
tirely Japauese education that was per- 
mitted to women under the old regime. 
That it was an effective and refining sys- 
tem, all can testify who have made the ac- 
quaintance of any of the charming Japa- 
nese ladies whose schooling was finished 
hefore Commodore Perry disturbed the re- 
pose of old Japan. As I write, the image 
comes before me of a sweet-faced, bright- 
eyed little gentlewoman with whom it was 
my good fortune to become intimately ac- 
quainted during my stay in Tokyo. A 
widow, left penniless, with one child to 
support, she earned the merest pittance 
by teaching sewing at one of the govern- 
ment schools in Tokyo ; but in all the cir- 
cumstances of her life, narrow and busy 
as it needs must be, she proved herself a 
lady through and through. Polite, cheer- 
ful, an intelligent and cultivated reader, 
a thrifty housekeeper, a loving and care- 
ful mother, a true and helpful friend, her 
memory is associated with many of my 
pleasantest hours in Japan, and she is but 
one of the many who bear witness to the 



50 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

culture that might he acquired by women 
in the old days. 

But the Japan of old is not the Japan 
of to-day, and in the school system now 
prevalent throughout the empire girls and 
boys are equally provided for. First the 
schools established by the various mission- 
ary societies, and then the government 
schools, offered to girls a broader education 
than the old instruction in Chinese, in 
etiquette, and in accomplishments. Now, 
every morning, the streets of the cities and 
villages are alive with boys and girls clat- 
tering along, with their books and lunch 
boxes in their hands, to the kindergarten, 
primary, grammar, high, or normal school. 
Every rank in life, every grade in learning, 
may find its proper place in the new school 
system, and the girls eagerly grasp their 
opportunities, and show themselves apt 
and willing students of the new learning 
offered to them. 

By the new system, at its present stage 
of development, too much is expected of 
the Japanese boy or girl. The work re- 
quired would be a burden to the quickest 
mind. The whole of the old education in 
Japanese and Chinese literature and com- 



EDUCATION. 51 

position — an education requiring the best 
years of a boy's life — is given, and grafted 
upon this, onr common-school and high- 
school studies of mathematics, geography, 
history, and natural science. In addition 
to these, at all higher schools, one foreign 
language is required, and often two, Eng- 
lish ranking first in the popular estima- 
tion. Many a headache do the poor, hard- 
working students have over the puzzling 
English language, in which they have to 
begin at the wrong end of the book and 
read across the page from left to right, in- 
stead of from top to bottom, and from right 
to left, as is natural to them. But in spite 
of its hard work, the new school life is 
cheerful and healthful, and the children 
enjoy it. It helps them to be really chil- 
dren, and, while they are young, to be 
merry and playful, not dignified and formal 
little ladies at all times. Upon the young 
girls, the influence of the schools is to 
make them more independent, self-reliant, 
and stronger women. In the houses of 
the higher classes, even now, much of the 
old-time system of repression is still in 
force. Children are indeed " seen but not 
heard," and from the time when they 



52 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

learn to walk they must learn to be polite 
and dignified. At school, the more pro- 
gressive feeling of the times predominates 
among the authorities, and the children 
are encouraged to unbend and enjoy them- 
selves in games and frolics, as true children 
should do. Much is done for the pleasure 
of the little ones, who often enjoy school 
better than home, and declare that they do 
not like holidays. 

But the young girl, who has finished 
this pleasant school life, with all its ad- 
vantages, is not as well fitted as under 
the old system for the duties and trials 
of married life, unless under exceptional 
circumstances, where the husband chosen 
has advanced ideas. To those teaching the 
young girls of Japan to-day, the problem of 
how to educate them aright is a deep one, 
and with each newly trained girl sent out 
go many hopes, mingled with anxieties, in 
regard to the training she has had as a 
preparation for the new life she is about to 
enter. The few, the pioneers, will have to 
suffer for the happiness and good of the 
many, for the problem of grafting the new 
on to the old is indeed a difficult one, to be 
solved only after many experiments. 



EDUCATION. 53 

There are many difficulties which lie in 
the way of the new schools that must be 
met, studied, and overcome. One of them 
is the one already referred to, the problem 
of how best to combine the new and the 
old in the school curriculum. That the old 
learning and literature, the old politeness 
and sweetness of manner, must not be 
given up or made little of, is evident to 
every right-minded student of the matter. 
That the newer and broader culture, with 
its higher morality, its greater develop- 
ment of the best powers of the mind, must 
play a large part in the Japan of the fu- 
ture, there is not a shadow of doubt, and 
the women must not be left behind in the 
onward movement of the nation. But how 
to give to the young minds the best pro- 
ducts of the thought of two such distinct 
civilizations is a question that is as yet un- 
answered, and cannot be satisfactorily set- 
tled until the effect of the new education 
has begun to show itself in a generation or 
so of graduates from the new schools. An- 
other difficulty is in the matter of health. 
Most of the new school-houses are fitted 
with seats and desks, such as are found 
in American schools. Many of them are 



54 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

heated by stoves or furnaces. The scholars 
in most cases wear the Japanese dress, 
which in winter is made warm enough to 
be worn in rooms having no artificial heat. 
Put this warm costume into an artificially 
heated room and the result is an over- 
heating of the body, and a subsequent chill 
when the pupil goes, with no extra cover- 
ing, into the keen out-of-door air. From 
this cause alone, arise many colds and 
lung troubles, which can be prevented 
when more experience has shown how the 
costumes of the East and West can be com- 
bined to suit the new conditions. Another 
part of the health problem lies in the fact 
that in many cases the parents do not 
understand the proper care of a growing 
girl, ambitious to excel in her studies. In- 
stead of the regular hours, healthful food, 
and gentle restraint that a girl needs under 
those circumstances, our little Japanese 
maiden is allowed to sit up to any hour of 
the night, or arise at any hour in the 
morning, to prepare her lessons, is given 
food of most indigestible quality at all 
hours of the day between her regular meals, 
and is frequently urged to greater mental 
exertion than her delicate body can en- 
dure. 



EDUCATION. 55 

Another difficulty, in fitting the new 
school system into the customs of the peo- 
ple, lies in the early age at which mar- 
riages are contracted. Before the girl has 
finished her school course, her parents be- 
gin to wonder whether there is not clanger 
of her being left on their hands altogether, 
if they do not hand her over to the first 
eligible young man who presents himself. 
Sometimes the girl makes a brave fight, 
and remains in school until her course is 
finished ; more often she succumbs and is 
married off, bids a weeping farewell to her 
teachers and schoolmates, and leaves the 
school, to become a wife at sixteen, a 
mother at eighteen, and an old woman at 
thirty. In some cases, the breaking down 
of a girl's health may be traced to threats 
on the part of her parents that, if she does 
not take a certain rank in her studies, she 
will be taken from school and married off. 

These are difficulties that may be over- 
come when a generation has been educated 
who can, as parents, avoid the mistakes 
that now endanger the health of a Japa- 
nese school-girl. In the mean time, board- 
ing schools, that can attend to matters of 
health and hygiene among the girls, would, 



56 JAPANESE GIELS AND WOMEN. 

if they could be conducted with the proper 
admixture of Eastern and Western learn- 
ing and manners, do a great deal toward 
educating that generation. The mission- 
ary schools do much iu this direction, hut 
the criticism of the Japanese upon the 
manners of the girls educated in mission- 
ary schools is universally severe. To a 
foreigner who has lived almost entirely 
among Japanese ladies of pure Japanese 
education, the manners of the girls in these 
schools seem brusque and awkward ; and 
though they are many of them noble 
women and doing noble work, there is 
room for hope that in the future of Japan 
the charm of manner which is the distin- 
guishing feature of the Japanese woman 
will not be lost by contact with our West- 
ern shortness and roughness. A happy 
mean undoubtedly can be reached ; and 
when it is, the women of new Japan will 
be able to bear a not unfavorable compari- 
son with the women of the old regime. 






CHAPTER III. 

MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. 

When the Japanese maiden arrives at 
the age of sixteen, or thereabouts, she is 
expected as a matter of course to marry. 
She is usually allowed her choice in regard 
to whether she will or will not marry a 
certain man, but she is expected to marry 
some one, and not to take too much time 
in making up her mind. The alternative 
of perpetual spinsterhood is never consid- 
ered, either by herself or her parents. 
Marriage is as much a matter of course 
in a woman's life as death, and is no more 
to be avoided. This being the case, our 
young woman has only as much liberty of 
choice accorded to her as is likely to pro- 
vide against a great amount of unhappi- 
ness in her married life. If she positively 
dislikes the man who is submitted to her 
for inspection, she is seldom forced to 
marry him, but no more cordial feeling 
than simple toleration is expected of her 
before marriage. 



58 JAPANESE GIELS AND WOMEN. 

The courtship is somewhat after the fol- 
lowing" manner. A young man, who finds 
himself in a position to marry, speaks to 
some married friend, and asks him to be 
on the lookout for a beautiful 1 and ac- 

1 The Japanese standard of female beauty differs in 
many respects from our own, so that it is almost impos- 
sible for a foreigner visiting 1 Japan to comprehend the 
judgments of the Japanese in regard to the beauty of 
their own women, and even more impossible for the un- 
traveled Japanese to discover the reasons for a foreign- 
er's judgments upon either Japanese or foreign beauties. 
To the Japanese, the ideal female face must be long and 
narrow ; the forehead high and narrow in the middle, but 
widening and lowering at the sides, conforming to the 
outline of the beloved Fuji, the mountain that Japanese 
art loves to picture. The hair should be straight and 
glossy black, and absolutely smooth. Japanese ladies 
who have the misfortune to have any wave or ripple in 
their hair, as many of them do, are at as much pains to 
straighten it in the dressing as American ladies are to 
simulate a natural curl, when Nature has denied them 
that charm. The eyes should be long and narrow, slant- 
ing upward at the outer corners ; and the eyebrows 
should be delicate lines, high above the eye itself. The 
distinctly aquiline nose should be low at the bridge, the 
curve outward beginning much lower down than upon 
the Caucasian face ; and the eye-socket should not be out- 
lined at all, either by the brow, the cheek, or by the 
nose. It is this flatness of the face about the eyes that 
gives the mildness of expression to all young people of 
Mongolian type that is so noticeable a trait always in 
their physiognomy. The mouth of an aristocratic Japa- 
nese lady must be small, and the lips full and red ; the 






MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. 59 

complislied maiden, who would be willing 
to become his wife. The friend, acting 1 

neck, a conspicuous feature always when the Japanese 
dress is worn, should he long and slender, and grace- 
fully curved. The complexion should he light, — a clear 
ivory-white, with little color in the cheeks. The bloom- 
ing country girl style of beauty is not admired, and every- 
thing, even to color in the cheeks, must be sacrificed to 
gain the delicacy that is the sine qua non of the Japanese 
beauty. The figure should be slender, the waist long, 
but not especially small, and the hips narrow, to secure 
the best effect with the Japanese dress. The head and 
shoulders should be carried slightly forward, and the 
body should also be bent forward slightly at the waist, to 
secure the most womanly and aristocratic carriage. In 
walking-, the step should be short and quick, with the 
toes turned in, and the foot lifted so slightly that either 
clog or sandal will scuff with every step. This is neces- 
sary for modesty, with the narrow skirt of the Japanese 
dress. 

Contrast with this type the fair, curling hair, the round 
blue eyes, the rosy cheeks, the erect, slim-waisted, large- 
hipped figures of many foreign beauties, — the rapid, 
long, clean-stepping walk, and the air of almost masculine 
strength and independence, which belongs especially to 
English and American women, — and one can see how the 
Japanese find little that they recognize as beauty among 
them. Blue eyes, set into deep sockets, and with the 
bridge of the nose rising as a barrier between them, im- 
part a fierce grotesqueness to the face, that the untraveled 
Japanese seldom admire. The very babies will scream 
with horror at first sight of a blue-eyed, fight-haired 
foreigner, and it is only after considerable familiarity 
with such persons that they can be induced to show any- 
thing but the wildest fright in their presence. Foreign- 



60 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

rather as advance agent, makes a can- 
vass of all the young maidens of his ac- 
quaintance, inquiring among his friends; 
and finally decides that so-and-so (Miss 
Flower, let us say) will he a very good 
match for his friend. Having arrived at 
this decision, he goes to Miss Flower's 
parents and lays the case of his friend be- 
fore them. Should they approve of the 
suitor, a party is arranged at the house 
of some common friend, where the young 
people may have a chance to meet each 
other and decide each upon the other's 
merits. Should the young folks find no 
fault with the match, presents are ex- 
changed, 1 a formal betrothal is entered 
into, and the marriage is hastened for- 
ward. All arrangements between the con- 
tracting parties are made by go-betweens, 
or seconds, who hold themselves responsi- 

ers who have lived a great deal among the Japanese find 
their standards unconsciously changing, and see, to their 
own surprise, that their countrywomen look ungainly, 
fierce, aggressive, and awkward among the small, mild, 
shrinking, and graceful Japanese ladies. 

1 The present from the groom is usually a piece of 
handsome silk, used for the obi or girdle. This takes the 
place of the conventional engagement ring of Europe and 
America. From the family of the bride, silk, such as is 
made up into men's dresses, is sent. 



MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. 



61 



ble for the success of the marriage, and 
must be concerned in the divorce proceed- 
ings, should divorce become desirable or 
necessary. 

The marriage ceremony, which seems to 
be neither religious nor legal in its nature, 
takes place at the house of the groom, to 
which the bride is carried, accompanied by 
her go-betweens, and, if she be of the 
higher classes, by her own confidential 
maid, who will serve her as her personal 
attendant in the new life in her husband's 
house. The trousseau and household goods, 
which the bride is expected to bring with 
her, are sent before. The household goods 
required by custom as a part of the outfit 
of every bride are as follows : A bureau ; a 
low desk or table for writing ; a work-box ; 
two of the lacquer trays or tables on which 
meals are served, together with everything 
required for furnishing them, even to the 
chopsticks ; and two or more complete sets 
of handsome bed furnishings. The trous- 
seau will contain, if the bride be of a well- 
to-do family, dresses for all seasons, and 
handsome sashes without number ; for the 
unchanging fashions of Japan, together 
with the durable quality of the dress mate- 



62 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

rial, make it possible for a woman, at the 
time of her marriage, to enter her hus- 
band's house with a supply of clothing" that 
may last her through her lifetime. The 
parents of the bride, in giving up their 
daughter, as they do when she marries, 
show the estimation in which they have 
held her by the beauty and completeness 
of the trousseau with which they provide 
her. This is her very own; and in the 
event of a divorce, she brings back with 
her to her father's house the clothing and 
household goods that she carried away as 
a bride. 

With the bride and her trousseau are 
sent a great number of presents from the 
family of the bride to the members of the 
groom's household. Each member of the 
family, from the aged grandfather to the 
youngest grandchild, receives some remem- 
brance of the occasion ; and even the ser- 
vants and retainers, down to the jinrikisha 
men, and the betto in the stables, are not 
forgotten by the bride's relatives. Beside 
this present-giving, the friends and rela- 
tives of the bride and groom, as in this 
country, send gifts to the young couple, 
often some article for use in the household, 
or crepe or silk for dresses. 



M1RRIAGE AND DIVORCE. 63 

In old times, the wedding- took place in 
the afternoon, bnt it is now usually cele- 
brated in the evening. The ceremony con- 
sists merely in a formal drinking of the 
native wine (sake) from a two-spouted cup, 
which is presented to the mouths of the 
bride and groom alternately. This drink- 
ing from one cup is a symbol of the equal 
sharing of the joys and sorrows of married 
life. At the ceremony no one is present 
but the bride and bridegroom, their go- 
betweens, and a young girl, whose duty it 
is to present the cup to the lips of the con- 
tracting parties. When this is over, the 
wedding guests, who have been assembled 
in the next room during the ceremony, 
joiu the wedding party, a grand feast is 
spread, and much merriment ensues. 1 

On the third day after the wedding, the 
newly married couple are expected to make 
a visit to the bride's family, and for this 
great preparations are made. A large 
party is usually given by the bride's pa- 
rents, either in the afternoon or evening, in 
honor of this occasion, to which the friends 

1 Many women still blacken their teeth after marriage, 
after the manner universal in the past ; but this custom 
is, fortunately, rapidly going- out of fashion. 



64 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

of the bride's family are invited. The young 
couple bring 1 with them presents from the 
groom's family to the bride's, in return for 
the presents sent on the wedding day. 

The festivities often hegin early in the 
afternoon and keep up until late at night. 
A fine dinner is served, and music and 
danciug, by professional performers, or 
some other entertainment, serve to make 
the time pass pleasantly. The bride ap- 
pears as hostess with her mother, enter- 
taining the company, and receiving their 
congratulations, and must remain to speed 
the last departing guest, before leaving 
the paternal roof. 

Within the course of two or three 
months, the newly married couple are ex- 
pected to give an entertainment, or series 
of entertainments, to their friends, as an 
announcement of the marriage. As the 
wedding ceremony is private, and no notice 
is given, nor are cards sent out, this is 
sometimes the first intimation that is re- 
ceived of the marriage by many of the 
acquaintances, though the news of a wed- 
ding usually travels quickly. The enter- 
tainment may be a dinner party, given at 
home, or at some tea-house, similar in 



Mj I RR L 1 1 . E A XD DI VOR CE. 6 5 

many ways to the one given at the bride's 
home by her parents. Sometimes it is a 
garden party, and very lately it has become 
the fashion for officials and people of high 
rank to give a ball in foreign style. 

Besides the entertainment, presents of 
red rice, or mochi, are sent as a token of 
thanks to all who have remembered the 
young couple. These are arranged even 
more elaborately than the ones sent after 
the birth of an heir. 

The young people are not, as in this 
country, expected to set up housekeeping 
by themselves, and establish a new home. 
Marriages often take place early in life, 
even before the husband has any means of 
supporting a family; and as a matter of 
course, a son with his wife makes his 
abode with his parents, and forms simply 
a new branch of the household. 

The only act required to make the mar- 
riage legal is the withdrawal of the bride's 
name from the list of her father's family as 
registered by the government, and its entry 
upon the register of her husband's family. 
From that time forward she severs all ties 
with her father's house, save those of 
aifection, and is more closely related by 



66 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

law and custom to her husband's relatives 
than to her own. Even this legal recogni- 
tion of her marriage is a comparatively 
new thing in Japan, as is any limitation of 
the right of divorce on the part of the 
husband, or extension of that right to the 
wife. 1 

At present in Japan the marriage rela- 
tion is by no means a permanent one, as it 
is virtually dissoluble at the will of either 
party, and the condition of public opinion 
is such among the lower classes that it is 
not an unknown occurrence for a man to 
marry and divorce several wives in succes- 
sion ; and for a woman, who has been 
divorced once or twice, to be willing and 
able to marry well a second or even a third 
time. Among the higher classes, the 
dread of the scandal and gossip, that must 
attach themselves to troubles between man 
and wife, serves as a restraint upon too 
free use of the power of divorce ; but still, 

1 " As early as 1870 an edict was published by which 
official notice and approbation were made necessary pre- 
liminaries to every matrimonial contract. In the follow- 
ing- year the class-limitations upon freedom of marriage 
were abolished, and two years later the right of suing for 
a divorce was conceded to the wife." — Rein's Japan, p. 
425. 



MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. 67 

divorces among the higher classed are so 
common now that one meets numerous 
respectable and respected persons who 
have at some time in their lives gone 
through such an experience. 

One provision of the law, which serves to 
make most mothers endure any evil of 
married life rather than sue for a divorce, 
is the fact that the children belong to the 
father; and no matter how unfit a person 
lie may be to have the care of them, the 
disposal of them in case of a divorce rests 
absolutely with him. A divorced woman 
returns childless to her father's house ; 
and many women, in consequence of this 
law or custom, will do their best to keep 
the family together, working the more 
strenuously in this direction, the more 
brutal and worthless the husband proves 
himself to be. 

The ancestor worship, as found in Japan, 
the tracing of relationship in the male 
line only, and the generally accepted be- 
lief that children inherit their qualities 
from their father rather than from the 
mother, make them his children and not 
hers. Thus we often see children of noble 
rank on the father's side, but ignoble on 



68 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

the mother's, inherit the rank of their 
father, and not permitted even to recog- 
nize their mother as in any way their 
equal. If she is plebeian, the children 
are not regarded as tainted by it. 

In the case of divorce, even if the law 
allowed the mother to keep her children, 
it would be almost an impossibility for her 
to do so. She has no means of earning 
her bread and theirs, for few occupations 
are open to women, and she is forced to 
become a dependent on her father, or some 
male relative. Whatever they may be 
willing to do for her, it is quite likely that 
they would begrudge aid to the children of 
another family, with whom custom hardly 
recognizes any tie. The children are the 
children of the man whose name they bear. 
If the woman is a favorite daughter, it may 
happen that her father will take her and 
her children under his roof, and support 
them all ; but this is a rare exception, and 
only possible when the husband first gives 
up all claim to the children. 

There comes to my mind now a case 
illustrating this point, which I think I may 
cite without betraying confidence. It is 
that of a most attractive young woman 



MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. 69 

who was married to a worthless husband, 
but lived faithfully with him for several 
years, aud became the mother of three 
children. The husband, who seemed at 
first merely good-for-nothing', became 
worse as the years went by, drank him- 
self out of situation after situation pro- 
cured for him by powerful relatives, and at 
last became so violent that he even beat 
his wife and threatened his children, a 
proceeding" most unusual on the part of 
a Japanese husband and father. The poor 
wife was at last obliged to flee from her 
husband's house to her mother's, taking 
her children with her. She sued for a di- 
vorce and obtained it, and is now married 
again ; her youth, good looks, and high 
connections procuring her a very good 
catch for her second venture in matri- 
mony; but her children are lost to her, 
and belong wholly to their worthless, 
drunken father. 

Of the lack of permanence in the mar- 
riage relation among the lower classes, the 
domestic changes of one of my servants in 
Tokyo afford an amusing illustration. The 
man, whom I had hired in the double 
capacity of jinrikisha man and bettb or 



70 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

groom, was a strong, faithful, pleasant- 
faced fellow, recently come to Tokyo from 
the country. I inquired, when I engaged 
him, whether he had a wife, as I wanted 
some one who could remain in his room in 
the stable in care of the horse when he 
was pulling me about in the jinrikisha. He 
replied that he had a wife, but she was now 
at Utsunomiya, the country town from 
which he had come, but he would send for 
her at once, and she would be in Tokyo in 
the course of a week or two. Two or three 
weeks passed and no wife appeared, so I 
inquired of my cook aud head servant 
what had become of Yasaku's wife. He 
replied, with a twinkle in his eye, that she 
had found work in Utsunomiya and did not 
wish to come. A week more passed, and 
still no wife, and further inquiries elicited 
from the cook the information that Yasaku 
had divorced her for disobedience, and was 
on the lookout for a new and more docile 
helpmate. His first thought was of the 
maidservant of the Japanese family who 
lived in the same house with me, a broad- 
faced, red-cheeked country girl, of a very 
low grade of intelligence. He gave this 
up, however, because he thought it would 



MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. 71 

not be polite to put my friends to inconve- 
nience by taking away their servant. His 
next effort was by negotiation through a 
Tokyo friend; but apparently Yasaku's 
country manners were not to the taste of 
the Tokyo damsels, for he met with no suc- 
cess, and was at last driven to write to his 
father in Utsunomiya asking him to select 
him a wife and bring her down to Tokyo. 

The selection took a week or two, and at 
last my maid told me that Yasaku's wife 
was coming by the next morning's train. 
A look into the betto's quarters in the 
stable showed great preparations for the 
bride. The mats, new-covered with nice 
straw matting, were white and clean ; the 
shoji were mended with new paper; the 
walls covered with bright-colored pictures ; 
and various new domestic conveniences 
had nearly bankrupted Yasaku, in spite of 
his large salary of ten dollars a month. 
He had ordered a fine feast at a neighbor- 
ing tea house, had had cards printed with 
his own name in English and Japanese, 
and had altogether been to such great ex- 
pense that he had had to put his winter 
clothes in pawn to secure the necessary 
money. 



72 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

The day chosen for the marriage was 
rainy, and, though Yasaku spent all his 
time in going to trains, no bridal party 
appeared ; and he came home at night dis- 
consolate, to smoke his good-night pipe 
over his solitary hibaclii. He was, no 
doubt, angry as well as disconsolate, for he 
sat down and penned a severe letter to his 
father, in which he said that, if the bride 
did not appear on the next day counted 
lucky for a wedding (no Japanese would 
be married on an unlucky day), they could 
send her back to her father's house, for he 
would none of her. This letter did its 
work, for on the next lucky day, about ten 
days later, the bride appeared, and Yasaku 
Was given two days of holiday on the agree- 
ment that he should not be married again 
while he remained in my service. On the 
evening of the second day, the bride came 
in to pay me her respects, and, crouching 
on her hands and knees before me, liter- 
ally trembled under the excitement of her 
first introduction to a foreigner. She was 
a girl of rather unattractive exterior, fat 
and heavy, and rather older than Yasaku 
had bargained for, I imagine ; at any rate, 
from the first, he seemed dissatisfied with 



MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. 73 

his " pig in a poke," and after a couple of 
months sent her home to her parents, and 
was all ready to start out again in the hope 
of better luck next time. 

Here is another instance, from the wo- 
man's side. Upon one occasion, when I 
was visiting a Japanese lady of high rank 
who kept a retinue of servants, the wo- 
man who came in with the tea bowed and 
smiled upon me as if greeting me after a 
long absence. As I was in and out of the 
house nearly every day, I was a little sur- 
prised at this demonstration, which was 
quite different from the formal bow that 
is given by the servant to her mistress's 
guest upon ordinary occasions. When she 
went out my friend said, " You see Kiku 
has come back." As I did not know that 
the woman had been away, the news of 
her return did not affect me greatly until 
I learned the history of her departure. It 
seemed that about a month before, she had 
left her mistress's house to be married ; 
and the day before my visit she had quietly 
presented herself, and announced that she 
had come back, if they would take her in. 
My friend had asked her what had hap- 
pened, — whether she had found her hus- 



74 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

band unkind. No, her husband was very 
nice, very kind and good, but his mother 
was simply unbearable; she made her work 
so hard that she actually had no time to 
rest at all. She had known before her 
marriage that her proposed mother-in-law 
was a hard task-mistress, but her husband 
had promised that his mother should live 
with his older brother, and they should 
have their housekeeping quite independent 
and separate. As the mother was then 
living with her older son, it seemed un- 
likely that she would care to move, and 
O Kiku San had married on that supposi- 
tion. But it seemed that the wife of the 
older brother was both lazy and bad-tem- 
pered, and the new wife of the younger 
brother soon proved herself industrious 
and good-natured. As the mother's main 
thought was to go where she would get 
the most comfort and waiting upon, she 
moved from the elder son's house to that 
of her younger son, and began leading her 
new daughter-in-law such a life that she 
soon gave up the effort to live with her 
husband, sued for a divorce, obtained it, 
and was back in her old place, all in a 
month's time from the date of her mar- 
riage. 



MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. 75 

But our readers must not suppose, from 
the various incidents given, that few* 
happy marriages take place in Japan, or 
that, in every rank of life, divorce is of 
every-day occurrence. On the contrary, 
there seems cause for wonder, not that 
there are so many divorces, but that there 
are so many happy marriages, with wives 
and husbands devoted and faithful. For a 
nobleman in the olden times to divorce his 
wife would have caused such a scandal and 
talk that it rarely occurred. If the wife 
were disliked, he need have little or noth- 
ing to do with her, their rooms, their 
meals, and their attendance being entirely 
separate, but he rarely took away from her 
the name of w r ife, empty as it might be. 
She usually would be from some other 
noble house, and great trouble would arise 
between the families if he attempted to 
divorce her. The samurai also, with the 
same loyalty which they displayed for their 
lords, were loyal to their wives, and many 
a novel has been written, or play acted, 
showing the devotion of husband and wife. 
The quiet, undemonstrative love, though 
very different from the ravings of a lover 
in the nineteenth century novel, is perhaps 
truer to life. 



76 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

Among the merchants and lower classes 
there has been, and is, a much lower stand- 
ard of morality, but the few years which 
have passed since the Revolution of 1868 
are not a fair sample of what Japan has 
been. Noblemen, samurai, and merchants 
have had much to undergo in the great 
changes, and, as is the case in all such 
transition periods, old customs and re- 
straints, and old standards of morality, 
have been broken down and have not been 
replaced. There is no doubt that men 
have run to excesses of all sorts, and di- 
vorces have been much more frequent of 
late years. 

Our little Japanese maiden knows, when 
she blackens her teeth, dons her wedding 
dress, and starts on her bridal journey to 
her husband's house, that upon her good 
behavior alone depend her chances of a 
happy life. She is to be henceforth the 
property of a man of whom she probably 
knows little, and who has the power, at 
any whim, to send her back to her father's 
house in disgrace, deprived of her children, 
with nothing to live for or hope for, ex- 
cept that some man will overlook the dis- 
grace of her divorce, and by marrying her 



MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. 77 

give her the only opportunity that a Jap- 
anese woman can have of a home other 
than that of a servant or dependent. That 
these evils will he remedied in time, there 
seems little reason to doubt, hut just now 
the various cooks who are engaged in brew- 
ing the broth of the new civilization are 
disagreed in regard to the condiments re- 
quired for its proper flavoring. The con- 
servatives wish to flavor strongly with the 
subjection and dependence of women, be- 
lieving that only by that means can femi- 
nine virtue be preserved. The younger 
men, of foreign education, would drop into 
the boiling pot the flavor of culture and 
broader outlook ; for by this means they 
hope to secure happier homes for all, and 
better mothers for their children. The 
missionaries and native Christians believe 
that, when the whole mixture is well im- 
pregnated with practical Christianity, the 
desired result will be achieved. All are 
agreed on this point, that a strong public 
opinion is necessary before improved leg- 
islation can produce much effect ; and 
so, for the present, legislation remains in 
the background, until the time shall come 
when it can be used in the right way. 



78 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

Let us examine the two remedies sug- 
gested by the reformers, and see what 
effect has been produced by each so far, 
and what may be expected of them in the 
future. Taking education first, what are 
the effects produced so far by educating 
women to a point above the old Japanese 
standard? In many happy homes to-day, 
we find husbands educated abroad, and 
knowing something of the home life of 
foreign lands, who have sought out wives 
of broad intellectual culture, and who make 
them friends and confidants, not simply 
housekeepers and head-servants. In such 
homes the wife has freedom, not such as 
is enjoyed by American women, perhaps, 
but equal to that of most European women. 
In such homes love and equality rule, and 
the power of the mother-in-law grows weak. 
To her is paid due respect, but she seldom 
has the despotic control which often makes 
the beginning of married life hard to the 
Japanese wife. These homes are sending 
out healthy influences that are daily hav- 
ing their effect, and raising the position of 
women in Japan. 

But for the young girl whose mind has 
been broadened by the new education, and 



MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. 79 

who marries, as the majority of Japanese 
girls must, not in accordance with her own 
wishes, but in obedience to the will of her 
parents, a hard life is in store. A woman's 
education, under the old regime, was one 
that fitted her well for the position that 
she was to occupy. The higher courses of 
study only serve to make her kick against 
the pricks, and render herself miserable 
where she might before have been happy. 
With mind and character developed by 
education, she may be obliged to enter the 
home of her husband's family, to be per- 
haps one among many members under the 
same roof. In the training of her own 
children, in the care of her own health 
and theirs, her wishes and judgment must 
often yield to the prejudices of those above 
her, uuder whose authority she is, and it 
may not be until many years have passed 
that she will be in a position to influence 
iu any measure the lives of those nearest 
and dearest to her. Then, too, her life 
must be passed entirely within the home, 
with no opportunities to meet or to mingle 
with the great world of which she has read 
and studied. Surely her lot is harder than 
that of the woman of the olden time, whose 



80 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

plain duty always lay in the path of im- 
plicit obedience to her superiors, and who 
never for one moment considered obedience 
to the dictates of her own reason and 
conscience as an obligation higher than 
deference to the wishes of husband and 
parents. Education, without further ame- 
lioration of their lot as wives and mothers, 
can but result in making the women dis- 
contented and unhappy, — in many cases 
injuring their health by worry over the 
constant petty disappointments and baffled 
desires of their lives. 

This to superficial observers would seem 
a step backward rather than forward, and 
it is to this cause that the present reaction 
against female education may be traced. 
The first generation or two of educated 
women must endure much for the sake of 
those who come after, and by many this 
vicarious suffering is misunderstood, and 
distaste on the part of educated girls for 
marriage, as it now exists in Japan, is re- 
garded as one of the sure signs that educa- 
tion is a failure. Without some change 
in the position of wife and mother, this 
feeling will grow into absolute repugnance, 
if women continue to be educated after the 
Western fashion. 



MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. 81 

The second remedy that is suggested is 
Christianity, a remedy which is even now 
at work. Wherever one finds in Japan a 
Christian home, there one finds the wife 
and mother occupying the position that 
she occupies all over Christendom. The 
Christian man, in choosing his wife, feels 
that it is not an ordinary contract, which 
may be dissolved at any time at the will of 
the contracting parties, but that it is a 
union for life. Consequently, in making 
his choice he is more careful, takes more 
time, and thinks more of the personal 
qualities of the woman he is about to 
marry. Thus the chances are better at 
the beginning for the establishment of a 
happy home, and such homes form centres 
of influence throughout the length and 
breadth of the land to-day. Christianity 
in the future will do much to mould public 
sentiment in the right way, and can be 
trusted as a force that is sure to grow in 
time to be a mighty power in the councils 
of the nation. 

One more remedy might be suggested, 
as a preliminary to proper legislation, or a 
necessary accompaniment of it, and that 
is, the opening of new avenues of employ- 



82 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

ment for women, and especially for women 
of the cultivated classes. To-day marriage, 
no matter how distasteful, is the only open- 
ing for a woman ; for she can do nothing for 
her own support, and cannot require her 
father to support her after she has reached 
a marriageable age. As new ways of self- 
support present themselves, and a woman 
may look forward to making a single life 
tolerable by her own labor, the intelligent 
girls of the middle class will no longer 
accept marriage as inevitable, but will only 
marry when the suitor can offer a good 
home, kindness, affection, and security in 
the tenure of these blessings. So far, 
there is little employment for women, ex- 
cept as teachers; but even this change in 
the condition of things is forming a class, 
as yet small, but increasing yearly, of 
women who enjoy a life of independence, 
though accompanied by much hard work, 
more than the present life of a Japanese 
married woman. In this class we find 
some of the most intelligent and respected 
of the women of new Japan ; and the 
growth of this class is one of the surest 
signs that the present state of the laws 
and customs concerning marriage and 



MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. 83 

divorce is so unsatisfactory to the women 
that it must eventually be remedied, if the 
educated and intelligent of the men care 
to take for their wives, and for the mo- 
thers of their children, any but the less 
educated and Jess intelligent of the women 
of their own nation. 



CHAPTER IV. 

WIFE AND MOTHEK. 

The young wife, when she enters her 
husband's home, is not, as in our own coun- 
try, entering upon a new life as mistress of 
a house, with absolute control over all of 
her little domain. Should her husband's 
parents be living, she becomes almost as 
their servant, and even her husband is un- 
able to defend her from the exactions of 
her mother-in-law, should this new relative 
be inclined to make full use of the power 
given her by custom. Happy is the girl 
whose husband has no parents. Her com- 
fort in life is materially increased by her 
husband's loss, for, instead of having to 
serve two masters, she will then have to 
serve only one, and that one more kind 
and thoughtful of her strength and com- 
fort than the mother-in-law. 

In Japan the idea of a wife's duty to her 
husband includes no thought of compan- 
ionship on terms of equality. The wife is 



WIFE AND MOTHER. 85 

simply the housekeeper, the head of the 
establishment, to be honored by the ser- 
vants because she is the one who is nearest 
to the master, but not for one moment to 
be regarded as the master's equal. She 
governs and directs the household, if it be 
a large one, and her position is one of much 
care and responsibility ; but she is not the 
intimate friend of her husband, is in no 
sense his confidante or adviser, except in 
trivial affairs of the household. She ap- 
pears rarely with him in public, is ex- 
pected always to wait upon him and save 
him steps, and must bear all things from 
him with smiling face and agreeable man- 
ners, even to the receiving with open arms 
into the household some other woman, 
whom she knows to bear the relation of 
concubine to her own husband. 

In return for this, she has, if she be of 
the higher classes, much respect and honor 
from those beneath her. She has, in 
many cases the real though often incon- 
siderate affection of her husband. If she 
be the mother of children, she is doubly 
honored, and if she be endowed with a good 
temper, good manners, and tact, she can 
render her position not only agreeable to 



86 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

herself, but one of great usefulness to 
those about her. It lies with her alone to 
make the home a pleasant one, or to make 
it unpleasant. Nothing is expected of the 
husband in this direction ; he may do as he 
likes with his own, and no one will blame 
him ; but if his home is not happy, even 
through his own folly or bad temper, the 
blame will fall upon his wife, who should 
by management do whatever is necessary 
to supply the deficiencies caused by her 
husband's shortcomings. In all things 
the husband goes first, the wife second. 
If the husband drops his fan or his hand- 
kerchief the wife picks it up. The husband 
is served first, the wife afterwards, and so 
on through the countless minutiae of daily 
life. It is not the idea of the strong man 
considering the weak woman, saving her 
exertion, guarding and deferring to her; 
but it is the less important waiting upon 
the more important, the servant deferring 
to her master. 

But though the present position of a 
Japanese wife is that of a dependent who 
owes all she has to her protector, and for 
whom she is bound to do all she can in 
return, the dependence is in many cases a 



WIFE AND MOTHER. 



87 



happy one. The wife's position, especially 
if she be the mother of children, is often 
pleasant, and her chief joy and pride lies 
in the proper conduct of her house and the 
training of her children. The service of 
her parents-in-law, however, must remain 
her first duty during" their lifetime. She 
must make it her care to see that they are 
waited upon and served with what they 
like at meals, that their clothes are care- 
fully and nicely made, and that countless 
little attentions are heaped upon them. 
As long- as her mother-in-law lives, the 
latter is the real ruler of the house ; and 
though in many cases the elder lady prefers 
freedom from responsibility to the personal 
superintendence of the details of house- 
keeping, she will not hesitate to require of 
her daughter-in-law that the house be kept 
to her satisfaction. If the maiden's lot is 
to be the first daughter-in-law in a large 
family, she becomes simply the one of the 
family from whom the most drudgery is 
expected, who obtains the fewest favors, 
and who is expected to have always the 
pleasantest of tempers under circumstances 
not altogether conducive to repose of spirit. 
The wife of the oldest son has, however, 



88 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

the advantage that, when her mother-in- 
law dies or retires, she becomes the mis- 
tress of the house and the head lady of the 
family, a position for which her apprentice- 
ship to the old lady has probably exception- 
ally well fitted her. 

Next to her parents-in-law, her duty is 
to her husband. She must herself render 
to him the little services that a European 
expects of his valet. She must not only 
take care of his clothing, but must bring it 
to him and help him put it on, and must 
put away with care whatever he has taken 
off; and she often takes pride in doing 
with her own hands many acts of service 
which might be left to servants, and which 
are not actually demanded of her, unless 
she has no one under her to do them. In 
the poorer families all the washing, sew- 
ing, and mending that is required is always 
done by the wife; and even the Empress 
herself is not exempt from these duties of 
personal service, but must wait upon her 
husband in various ways. 

When the earliest beams of the sun 
shine in at the cracks of the dark wooden 
shutters which surround the house at 
night, the young wife in the family softly 



WIFE AND MOTHER. 89 

arises, puts out the feeble light of the 
andon, 1 which has burned all night, and, 
quietly opening one of the sliding doors, 
admits enough light to make her own 
toilet. She dresses hastily, only putting a 
few touches here and there to her -elaborate 
coiffure, which she has not taken down for 
her night's rest. 2 Next she goes to arouse 
the servants, if they are not already up, 
and with them prepares the modest break- 
fast. When the little lacquer tables, with 
rice bowls, plates, and chopsticks are ar- 
ranged in place, she goes softly to see 
whether her parents and husband are 
awake, and if they have hot water, char- 
coal fire, and whatever else they may need 
for their toilet. Then with her own hands, 

1 The andon is the standing lamp, inclosed in a paper 
case, used as a night lamp in all Japanese houses. 
Until the introduction of kerosene lamps, the andon was 
the only light used in Japanese houses. The light is pro- 
duced hy a pith wick floating in a saucer of vegetable 
oil. 

2 The pillow used hy ladies is merely a wooden rest for 
the head, that supports the neck, leaving the elaborate 
head-dress undisturbed. The hair is dressed by a pro- 
fessional hair-dresser, who comes to the house once in 
two or three days. In some parts of Japan, as in Kioto, 
where the hair is even more elaborately dressed than in 
Tokyo, it is much less frequently arranged. The process 
takes two hours at least. 



90 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

or with the help of the servants, she slides 
back the wooden shutters, opening the 
whole house to the fresh morning air and 
sunlight. It is she, also, who directs the 
washing and wiping of the polished floors, 
and the folding and putting away of the 
bedding, so that all is in readiness before 
the morning meal. 

When breakfast is over, the husband 
starts for his place of business, and the lit- 
tle wife is in waiting to send him off with 
her sweetest smile and her lowest bow, 
after having seen that his foot-gear — 
whether sandal, clog, or shoe — is at the 
door ready for him to put on, his umbrella, 
book, or bundle at hand, and his huruma 
waiting for him. 

Certainly a Japanese man is lucky in 
having all the little things in his life at- 
tended to by his thoughtful wife, — a good, 
considerate, careful body-servant, always 
on hand to bear for him the trifling wor- 
ries and cares. There is no wonder that 
there are no bachelors in Japan. To some 
degree, I am sure, the men appreciate 
these attentions ; for they often become 
much in love with their sweet, helpful 
wives, though they do not share with them 



WIFE AND MOTHER. 91 

the greater things of life, the ambitions 
and the hopes of men. 

The husband started on his daily rounds, 
the wife settles down to the work of the 
house. Her sphere is within her home, 
and though, unlike other Asiatic women, 
she goes without restraint alone through 
the streets, she does not concern herself 
with the great world, nor is she occupied 
with such a round of social duties as fill 
the lives of society women in this country. 
Yet she is not barred out from all inter- 
course with the outer world, for there are 
sometimes great dinner parties, given per- 
haps at home, when she must appear as 
hostess, side by side with her husband, and 
share with him the duty of entertaining 
the guests. There are, besides, smaller 
gatherings of friends of her husband, when 
she must see that the proper refreshments 
are served, if they be only the omnipres- 
ent tea and cake. She may, perhaps, join 
in the number and listen to the conver- 
sation ; but if there are no ladies, she will 
probably not appear, except to attend to 
the wants of her guests. There are also 
lady visitors — friends and relatives — who 
come to make calls, oftentimes from a 



92 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

distance, and nearly always unexpectedly, 
whose entertainment devolves on the wife. 
Owing" to the great distances in many of 
the cities, and the difficulties that used to 
attend going from place to place, it has 
become a custom not to make frequent 
visits, but long ones at long intervals. A 
guest often stays several hours, remaining 
to lunch or dinner, as the case may be, and, 
should the distance be great, may spend 
the night. So rigid are the requirements 
of Japanese hospitality that no guest is 
ever allowed to leave a house without hav- 
ing been pressed to partake of food, if it 
be only tea and cake. Even tradesmen or 
messengers who come to the house must 
be offered tea, and if carpenters, garden- 
ers, or workmen of any kind are employed 
about the house, tea must be served in the 
middle of the afternoon with a light lunch, 
and tea sent out to them often during their 
day's work. If a guest arrives in jinrikisha, 
not only the guest, but the jinrikisha men 
must be supplied with refreshments. All 
these things involve much thought and 
care on the part of the lady of the house. 

In the homes of rich and influential men 
of wide acquaintance, there is a great deal 



WIFE AND MOTHER. 93 

going on to make a pleasant variety for 
the ladies of the household, even although 
the variety involves extra work and respon- 
sibility. The mistress of such a house- 
hold sees and hears a great deal of life; 
and her position requires no little wisdom 
and tact, even where the housewife has 
the assistance of good servants, capable, as 
many are, of sharing not only the work, 
but the responsibility as well. Clever wives 
in such homes see and learn much, in 
an indirect way, of the outside world in 
which the men live; and may become, if 
they possess the natural capabilities for 
the work, wise advisers and sympathizers 
with their husbands in many things far 
beyond their ordinary field of action. An 
intelligent woman, with a strong will, has 
often been, unseen and unknown, a mighty 
influence in Japan. That her power for 
good or bad, outside of her influence as 
wife and mother, is a recognized fact, is 
seen in the circumstance that in novels 
and plays women are frequently brought in 
as factors in political plots and organized 
rebellions, as well as in acts of private re- 
venge. 

Still the life of the average woman is a 



94 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

quiet one, with little to interrupt the mo- 
notony of her days with their never-ending 
round of duties ; and to the most secluded 
homes only an occasional guest comes to 
enliven the dull hours. The principal oc- 
cupation of the wife, outside of her house- 
keeping and the little duties of personal 
service to husband and parents, is needle- 
work. Every Japanese woman (excepting 
those of the highest rank) knows how to 
sew, and makes not only her own gar- 
ments and those of her children, but her 
husband's as well. Sewing is one of the 
essentials in the education of a Japanese 
girl, and from childhood the cutting and 
putting together of crepe, silk, and cotton 
is a familiar occupation to her. Though 
Japanese garments seem very simple, cus- 
tom requires that each stitch and seam be 
placed in just such a way ; and this way is 
something of a task to learn. To the un- 
initiated foreigner, the general effect of the 
loosely worn kimono is the same, whether 
the garment be well or ill made; but the 
skillful seamstress can easily discover that 
this seam is not turned just as it should 
be, or that those stitches are too long or 
too short, or carelessly or unevenly set. 



WIFE AND MOTHER. 95 

Fancy work 1 or embroidery is not done 
in the house, the gorgeous embroidered 
Japanese robes being' the product of pro- 
fessional workmen. Instead of the endless 
fancy work with silks, crewels, or worsteds, 
over which so many American ladies spend 
their leisure hours, many of the Japanese 
ladies, even of the highest rank, devote 
much time to the cultivation of the silk- 
worm. In country homes, and in the great 
cities as well, wherever spacious grounds 
afford room for the growth of mulberry 
trees, silkworms are raised and watched 
with care ; an employment giving much 
pleasure to those engaged in it. 

It is difficult for any one who has not 
experimented in this direction to realize 
how tender these little spinners are. If a 
strong breeze blow upon them, they are 
likely to suffer for it, and the least change 
in the atmosphere must be guarded against. 
For forty days they must be carefully 
watched, and the great, shallow, bamboo 
basket trays containing them changed al- 
most daily. New leaves for their food 

1 The one exception to this statement, so far as I know, 
is the species of silk mosaic made by the ladies in the 
daimios 1 houses. (See chap, vii.) 



96 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

must be given frequently, and as the least 
dampness might be fatal, each leaf, in case 
of rainy weather, is carefully wiped. Then, 
too, the different ages of the worms must 
be considered in preparing their food; as, 
for the young worms, the leaves should be 
cut up, while for the older ones it is better 
to serve them whole. When, finally, the 
buzzing noise of the crunching leaves has 
ceased, and the last worm has put him- 
self to sleep in his precious white cocoon, 
the work of the ladies is ended ; for the 
cocoons are sent to women especially 
skilled in the work, by them to be spun 
off, and the thread afterwards woven into 
the desired fabric. When at last the silk, 
woven and dyed, is returned to the ladies 
by whose care the worms were nourished 
until their work was done, it is shown 
with great pride as the product of the 
year's labor, and if given as a present will 
be highly prized by the recipient. 

Among the daily tasks of the housewife, 
one, and by no means the least of her 
duties, is to receive, duly acknowledge, and 
return in suitable manner, the presents 
received in the family. Presents are not 
confined to special seasons, although upon 



WIFE AND MOTHER. 97 

certain occasions etiquette is rigid in its 
requirements in this matter, but they may 
be given and received at all times, for the 
Japanese are preeminently a present-giv- 
ing nation. For every present received, 
sooner or later, a proper return must be 
sent, appropriate to the season and to the 
rank of the receiver, and neatly arranged 
in the manner that etiquette prescribes. 
Presents are not necessarily elaborate; 
callers bring fruit of the season, cake, or 
any delicacy, and a visit to a sick person 
must be accompanied by something appro- 
priate. Children visiting in the family are 
always given toys, and for this purpose a 
stock is kept on hand. The present-giving 
culminates at the close of the year, when 
all friends and acquaintances exchange 
gifts of more or less value, according to 
their feelings and means. Should there be 
any one who has been especially kind, and 
to whom return should be made, this is the 
time to do so. 

Tradesmen send presents to their pa- 
trons, scholars to teachers, patients to 
their physicians, and, in short, it is the 
time when all obligations and debts are 
paid off, in one way or another. On the 






98 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

seventh day of the seventh month, there is 
another general interchange of presents, 
although not so universal as at the New 
Year. It can easily be imagined that all 
this present-giving entails much care, es- 
pecially in families of influence ; and it 
must be attended to personally by the wife, 
who, in the secret recesses of her store- 
room, skillfully manages to rearrange the 
gifts received, so that those not needed in 
the house may be sent, not back to their 
givers, but to some place where a present 
is due. The passing-on of the presents is 
an economy not of course acknowledged, 
but frequently practiced even in the best 
families, as it saves much of the otherwise 
ruinous expense of this custom. 

As time passes by, occasional visits are 
paid by the young wife to her own parents 
or to other relatives. At stated times, too, 
she, and others of the family, will visit 
the tombs of her husband's ancestors, or of 
her own parents, if they are no longer liv- 
ing, to make offerings and prayers at the 
graves, to place fresh branches of the 
sakaki l before the tombs, and to see that 

1 Sakaki, the Cleyera Japonica, a sacred plant em- 
blematic of purity, and much used at funerals and in 
the decoration of graves. 



WIFE AND MOTHER. 99 

the priests in charge of the cemetery have 
attended to all the little things which the 
Japanese believe to be required by the 
spirits of the dead. Even these visits are 
often looked forward to as enlivening the 
monotony of the humdrum home life. 
Sometimes all the members of the family 
go together on a pleasure excursion, spend- 
ing the day out of doors, in beautiful gar- 
dens, when some one of the nmch-loved 
flowers of the nation is in its glory ; and 
the little wife may join in this pleasure 
with the rest, but more often she is the 
one who remains at home to keep the house 
in the absence of others. The theatre, too, 
a source of great amusement to Japanese 
ladies, is often a pleasure reserved for a 
time later in life. 

The Japanese mother takes great de- 
light and comfort in her children, and 
her constant thought and care is the 
right direction of their habits and man- 
ners. She seems to govern them entirely 
by gentle admonition, and the severest 
chiding that is giveu them is always in 
a pleasant voice, and accompanied by a 
smiling face. No matter how many ser- 
vants there may be, the mother's influ- 



100 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

ence is always direct and personal. No 
thick walls and long passageways separate 
the nursery from the grown people's apart- 
ments, but the thin paper partitions make 
it possible for the mother to know al- 
ways what her children are doing, and 
whether they are good and gentle with 
their nurses, or irritable and passionate. 
The children never leave the house, nor 
return to it, without going to their mo- 
ther's room, and there making the little 
bows and repeating the customary phrases 
used upon such occasions. In the same 
way, when the mother goes out, all the 
servants and the children escort her to 
the door ; and when her attendant shouts 
" kaeri," which is the signal of her re- 
turn, children and servants hasten to the 
gate to greet her, and do what they can 
to help her from her conveyance and make 
her home-coming pleasant and restful. 

The father has little to do with the 
training of his children, which is left al- 
most entirely to the mother, and, except 
for the interference of the mother-in-law, 
she has her own way in their training, 
until they are long past childhood. The 
children are taught to look to the father 



WIFE AND MOTHER. 101 

as the head, and to respect and obey him 
as the one to whom all must defer; but 
the mother comes next, almost as high in 
their estimation, and, if not so much feared 
and respected, certainly enjoys a larger 
share of their love. 

The Japanese mother's life is one of 
perfect devotion to her children ; she is 
their willing slave. Her days are spent 
in cariug for them, her evenings in watch- 
ing over them ; and she spares neither 
time nor trouble in doing anything for 
their comfort and pleasure. In sickness, 1 
in health, day and night, the little ones 
are her one thought ; and from the home 
of the noble to the humble cot of the 
peasant, this tender mother-love may be 
seen in all its different phases. The Japa- 
nese woman has so few ou whom to lavish 
her affection, so little to live for beside her 
children, and no hopes in the future except 
through them, that it is no wonder that 

1 Since the introduction of the foreign system of medi- 
cine and nursing-, the Japanese realize so acutely the lack 
of conveniences and appliances for nursing the sick in 
their own homes, that cases of severe or even serious ill- 
ness are usually sent to hospitals, where the invalids can 
have the comforts that even the wealthy Japanese homes 
cannot furnish. 



102 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

she devotes her life to their care and ser- 
vice, deeming the drudgery that custom 
requires of her for them the easiest of 
all her duties. Even with plenty of ser- 
vants, the mother performs for her chil- 
dren nearly all the duties often delegated 
to nurses in this country. Mother and 
babe are rarely separated, night or day, 
during the first few years of the baby's 
life, and the mother denies herself any 
entertainment or journey from home when 
the baby cannot accompany her. To give 
the husband any share in the baby-work 
would be an unheard-of thing, and a dis- 
grace to the wife ; for in public and in 
private the baby is the mother's sole 
charge, and the husband is never asked 
to sit up all night with a sick baby, or 
to mind it in any way at all. Nothing 
in all one's study of Japanese life seems 
more beautiful and admirable than the 
influence of the mother over her children, 
— an influence that is gentle and all-per- 
vading, bringing out all that is sweetest 
and noblest in the feminine character, and 
affording the one almost unlimited oppor- 
tunity of a Japanese woman's life. The 
lot of a childless wife in Japan is a sad 



WIFE AND MOTHER. 103 

one. Not only is she denied the hopes 
and the pleasures of a mother in her chil- 
dren, but she is an object of pity to her 
friends, and well does she know that Con- 
fucius has laid down the law that a man is 
justified in divorcing a childless wife. All 
feel that through her, innocent though she 
is, the line has ceased ; that her duty is 
unfulfilled; and that, though the name be 
given to adopted sons, there is no heir of 
the blood. A man rarely sends away his 
wife solely with this excuse, but children 
are the strongest of the ties which bind 
together husband and wife, and the child- 
less wife is far less sure of pleasing her 
husband. In many cases she tries to make 
good her deficiencies by her care of adopted 
children ; in them she often finds the love 
which fills the void in her heart and home, 
and she receives from them in after-life the 
respect and care which is the crown of old 
age. 

We have hitherto spoken of married life 
when the wife is received into her hus- 
band's home. Another interesting side of 
Japanese marriage is when a man enters 
the wife's family, taking her name and 
becoming entirely one of her family, as 



104 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

usually the wife becomes of the husband's. 
When there are daughters but no sons in 
a family to inherit the name, one of three 
things may happen : a son may be adopted 
early in life and grow up as heir; or he 
may be adopted with the idea of marrying 
one of the daughters ; or, again, no one 
may have been formally adopted, but on the 
eldest daughter's coming to a marriageable 
age, her family and friends seek for her a 
yoshii, that is to say, some man (usually a 
younger son) who is willing and able to 
give up his family name, and, by marry- 
ing the daughter, become a member of 
her family and heir to the name. He 
cuts off all ties from his own family, and 
becomes a member of hers, and the young 
couple are expected to live with her pa- 
rents. In this case the tables are turned, 
and it is he who has to dread the mother- 
in-law ; it is his turn to have to please his 
new relatives and to do all he can to be 
agreeable. He, too, may be sent away and 
divorced by the all-powerful parents, if he 
does not please ; and such divorces are not 
uncommon. Of course, in such marriages, 
the woman has the greater power, and the 
man has to remember what he owes her ; 



WIFE AND MOTHER. 105 

and though the woman yields to him obedi- 
ently in all respects, it is an obedience not 
demanded by the husband, as under other 
circumstances. In such marriages the 
children belong to the family whose name 
they bear, so that in case of divorce they 
remain in the wife's family, unless some 
special arrangement is made about them. 

It may be wondered why young men 
ever care to enter a family as yoshii. There 
is only one answer, — it is the attraction 
of wealth and rank, very rarely that of the 
daughter herself. In the houses of rich 
daimios without sons, yoshii are very com- 
mon, and there are many younger sons of 
the nobility, themselves of high birth, but 
without prospects, who are glad enough to 
become great lords. In feudal times, the 
number of samurai families was limited. 
Several sons of one family could not estab- 
lish different samurai families, but all but 
the eldest son, if they formed separate 
houses, must enroll themselves among the 
ranks of the common people. Hence the 
younger sons were often adopted into other 
samurai families as yoshii, where it was de- 
sired to secure a succession to a name that 
must otherwise die out. Since the Resto- 



106 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

ration, and the breaking down of the old 
class distinctions, young men care more 
for independence than for their rank as 
samurai; and it is now quite difficult to 
find yoshii to enter samurai families, unless 
it be because of the attractiveness and 
beauty of the young lady herself. Many a 
young girl who could easily make a good 
marriage with some suitable husband, could 
she enter his family, is now obliged to take 
some inferior man as yoshii, because few 
men in these days are willing to change 
their names, give up their independence, 
and take upon themselves the support of 
aged parents-in-law ; for this also is ex- 
pected of the yoshii, unless the family that 
he enters is a wealthy one. 

From this custom of yoshii, and its effect 
upon the wife's position, we see that, in 
certain cases, Japanese women are treated 
as equal with men. It is not because of 
their sex that they are looked down upon 
and held in subjection, but it is because of 
their almost universal dependence of posi- 
tion. The men have the right of inheri- 
tance, the education, habits of self-reliance, 
and are the bread-winners. Wherever the 
tables are turned, and the men are depen- 



WIFE AND MOTHER. 107 

dents of the women, and even where the 
women are independent of the men, — 
there we find the relations of men to 
women vastly changed. The women of 
Japan must know how to do some definite 
work in the world beyond the work of the 
home, so that their position will not be one 
of entire dependence upon father, husband, 
or son. If fathers divided their estates 
between sons and daughters alike, and 
women were given, before the law, right 
to hold property in their own names, much 
would be accomplished towards securing 
them in their positions as wives and mo- 
thers ; and divorce, the great evil of Japa- 
nese home life to-day, would become simply 
a last resort to preserve the purity of the 
home, as it is in most civilized countries 
now. 

The difference between the women of 
the lower and those of the higher classes, 
in the matter of equality with their hus- 
bands, is quite noticeable. The wife of the 
peasant or merchant is much nearer to 
her husband's level than is the wife of the 
Emperor. Apparently, each step in the 
social scale is a little higher for the man 
than it is for the woman, and lifts him a 



108 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

little farther above his wife. The peasant 
and his wife work side by side in the field, 
put their shoulders to the same wheel, eat 
together in the same room, at the same 
time, and whichever of them happens to 
be the stronger in character governs the 
house, without regard to sex. There is no 
great gulf fixed between them, and there 
is frequently a consideration for the wife 
shown by husbands of the lower class, that 
is not unlike what we see in our own coun- 
try. I remember the case of a jinrikisha 
man employed by a friend of mine in To- 
kyo, who was much laughed at by his 
friends because he actually used to spend 
some of his leisure moments in drawing 
the water required for his household from 
a well some distance away, and carrying 
the heavy buckets to the house, in order 
to save the strength of his little, delicate 
wife. That cases of such devotion are rare 
is no doubt true, but that they occur 
shows that there is here and there a recog- 
nition of the claims that feminine weak- 
ness has upon masculine strength. 

A frequent sight in the morning, in 
Tokyo, is a cart heavily laden with wood r 
charcoal, or some other country produce. 



WIFE AND MOTHER. 109 

creaking slowly along the streets, pro- 
pelled by a farmer and his family. Some- 
times one will see an old man, his son, and 
his son's wife with a baby on her back, all 
pushing or pulling with might and main ; 
the woman with tucked -up skirts and tight- 
fitting blue trousers, a blue towel envelop- 
ing her head, — only to be distinguished 
from the men by her smaller size and the 
baby tied to her back. But when even- 
ing comes, and the load of produce has 
been disposed of, the woman and baby are 
seen seated upon the cart, while the two 
men pull it back to their home in some 
neighboring village. Here, again, is the 
recognition of the law that governs the 
position of woman in this country, — the 
theory, not of inferior position, but of 
inferior strength ; and the sight of the 
women riding back in the empty carts at 
night, drawn by their husbands, is the 
thing that strikes a student of Japanese 
domestic life as nearest to the customs of 
our own civilization in regard to the rela- 
tions of husbands and wives. 

Throughout the country districts, where 
the women have a large share in the labor 
that is directly productive of wealth, where 



110 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

they not only work in the rice fields, pick 
the tea crops, gather the harvests, and 
help draw them to market, hut where they 
have their own productive industries, such 
as caring for the silkworms, and spin- 
ning, and weaving hoth silk and cotton, 
we find the conventional distance between 
the sexes much diminished by the impor- 
tant character of feminine labor; but in 
the cities, and among the classes who are 
largely either indirect producers or non- 
producers, the only labor of the women is 
that personal service which we account as 
menial. It is for this reason, perhaps, that 
the gap widens as we go upward in so- 
ciety, and between the same social levels 
as we go cityward. 

The wife of the countryman, though she 
may work harder and grow old earlier, is 
more free and independent than her city 
sister; and the wife of the peasant, push- 
ing her produce to market, is in some ways 
happier and more considered than the wife 
of the noble, who must spend her life 
among her ladies-in-waiting, in the seclu- 
sion of her great house with its beautiful 
garden, the plaything of her husband in 
his leisure hours, but never his equal, or 
the sharer of his cares or of his thoughts. 



WIFE AND MOTHER. Ill 

One of the causes which must be men- 
tioned as contributing to the lowering of 
the wife's position, among the higher and 
more wealthy classes, lies in the system of 
concubinage which custom allows, and the 
law until quite recently has not discour- 
aged. From the Emperor, who was, by the 
old Chinese code of morals, allowed twelve 
supplementary wives, to the samurai, who 
are permitted two, the men of the higher 
classes are allowed to introduce into their 
families these mekake, who, while beneath 
the wife in position, are frequently more 
beloved by the husband than the wife her- 
self. It must be said, however, to the 
credit of many husbands, that in spite of 
this privilege, which custom allows, there 
are many men of the old school who are 
faithful to one wife, and never introduce 
this discordant element into the household. 
Even should he keep mekakS, it is often 
unknown to the wife, and she is placed in 
a separate establishment of her own. And 
in spite of the code of morals requiring 
submission in any case on the part of the 
woman, there are many wives of the samu- 
rai and lower classes who have enough 
spirit and wit to prevent their husbands 



112 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

from ever introducing a rival under the 
same roof. In this way the practice is 
made hetter than the theory. 

Not so with the more helpless wife of 
the nobleman, for wealth and leisure make 
temptation greater for the husband. She 
submits unquestioningly to the custom re- 
quiring that the wife treat these women 
with all civility. Their children she may 
even have to adopt as her own. The lot of 
the me~kake herself is rendered the less en- 
durable, from the American point of view, 
by the fact that, should the father of her 
child decide to make it his heir, the mother 
is thenceforth no more to it than any other 
of the servants of the household. For in- 
stance, suppose a hitherto childless noble is 
presented with a son by one of his concu- 
bines, and he decides by legal adoption to 
make that son his heir: the child at its birth, 
or as soon afterwards as is practicable, is 
taken from its mother and placed in other 
hands, and the mother never sees her own 
child until, on the thirtieth day after its 
birth, she goes with the other servants of 
the household to pay her respects to her 
young master. If it were not for the habit 
of abject obedience to parents which Japa- 



WIFE AND MOTHER. 113 

nese custom has exalted into the one femi- 
nine virtue, few women could be found of 
respectable families who would take a posi- 
tion so devoid of either honor or satisfac- 
tion of any kind as that of mekake. That 
these positions are not sought after must be 
said, to the honor of Japanese womanhood. 
A nobleman may obtain samurai women 
for his " mekake " (literally, honorable 
concubines), but they are never respected 
by their own class for taking such positions. 
In the same way the mekake of samurai 
are usually from the lieimin. No woman 
who has any chance of a better lot will ever 
take the unenviable position of mekake. 

A law which has recently been promul- 
gated strikes at the root of this evil, and, if 
enforced, will in course of time go far to- 
ward extirpating it. Henceforth in Japan, 
no child of a concubine, or of adoption from 
any source, can inherit a noble title. The 
heir to the throne must hereafter be the 
son, not only of the Emperor, but of the 
Empress, or the succession passes to some 
collateral branch of the family. This law 
does not apply to Prince Haru, the present 
heir to the throne, as, although he is not 
the son of the Empress, he was legally 



114 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

adopted before the promulgation of the 
law; but should he die, it will apply to all 
future heirs. 

That public opinion is moving in the 
right direction is shown by the fact that 
the young men of the higher classes do 
not care to marry the daughters of mekake, 
be they ever so legally adopted by their 
own fathers. When the girls born of such 
unions become a drug in the matrimonial 
market, and the boys are unable to keep 
up the succession, the meltake will go out 
of fashion, and the real wife will once more 
assume her proper importance. 1 

Upon the 11th day of February, 1889, 
the day on which the Emperor, by his own 
act in giving a constitution to the people, 
limited his own power for the sake of put- 
ting his nation upon a level with the most 
civilized nations of the earth, he at the 

1 It is worth while to mention in this connection the 
noteworthy efforts made by the Woman's Christian Tem- 
perance Union of Japan in calling" the attention of the 
public to this custom, and in arousing public sentiment 
in favor of legislation against not only this system, but 
against the licensed houses of prostitution. Though 
there has not yet been any practical result, much discus- 
sion has ensued in the newspapers and magazines, lec- 
tures have been given, and much strong feeling aroused, 
which may, before long, produce radical change. 



WIFE AND MOTHER. 115 

same time, and for the first time, publicly 
placed his wife upon his own level. In an 
imperial progress made through the streets 
of Tokyo, the Emperor and Empress, for 
the first time in the history of Japan, rode 
together in the imperial coach. Until 
then, the Emperor, attended by his chief 
gentlemen-in-waiting and his guards, had 
always headed the procession, while the 
Empress must follow at a distance with her 
own attendants. That this act on the part 
of the Emperor signifies the beginning of a 
new and better era for the women of Japan, 
we cannot but hope; for until the position 
of the wife and mother in Japan is im- 
proved and made secure, little permanence 
can be expected in the progress of the 
nation toward what is best and highest 
in the Western civilization. Better laws, 
broader education for the women, a change 
in public opinion on the subject, caused by 
the study, by the men educated abroad, of 
the homes of Europe and America, — these 
are the forces which alone can bring the 
women of Japan up to that place in the 
home which their intellectual and, moral 
qualities fit them to fill. That Japan is 
infinitely ahead of other Oriental countries 



116 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

in her practices in this matter is greatly 
to her credit; but that she is far behind 
the civilized nations of Europe and Amer- 
ica, not only in practice but in theory, is a 
fact that is incontestable, and a fact that, 
unless changed, must sooner or later be a 
stumbling-block in the path of her progress 
toward the highest civilization of which she 
is capable. 1 The European practice cannot 
be grafted upon the Asiatic theory, but the 
change in the home must be a radical one, 
to secure permanent good results. As long 
as the wife has no rights which the hus- 
band is bound to respect, no great advance 

1 Many of the thinking men of Japan, though fully 
recognizing the injustice of the present position of woman 
in society, and the necessity of reform in the marriage 
and divorce laws, refuse to see the importance of any 
movement to change them. Their excuse is, that such 
power in the hands of the husband over his wife might be 
abused, but that in fact it is not. Wrongs and injustice 
are rare, they argue, and kind treatment, affection, and 
even respect for the wife is the general rule ; and that 
the keeping of the power in the hands of the husband is 
better than giving too much freedom to women who are 
without education. These men wish to wait until every 
woman is educated, before acting in a reform movement, 
while many conservatives oppose the new system of edu- 
cation for girls as making them unwomanly. Between 
these two parties, the few who really wish for a change 
are utterly unable to act. 



WIFE AND MOTHER. 117 

can be made, for human nature is too 
mean and selfish to give in all cases to 
those who are entirely unprotected by law, 
and entirely unable to protect themselves, 
those things which the moral nature de- 
clares to be their due. In the old slave 
times in the South, many of the negroes 
were better fed, better cared for, and hap- 
pier than they are to-day ; but they were 
nevertheless at the mercy of men who 
too often thought only of themselves, and 
not of the human bodies and souls over 
which they had unlimited power. It was a 
condition of things that could not be pre- 
vented by educating the masters so as to 
induce them to be kind to their slaves ; it 
was a condition that was wrong in theory, 
and so could not be righted in practice. In 
the same way the position of the Japanese 
wife is wrong in theory, and can never be 
righted until legislation has given to her 
rights which it still denies. Education will 
but aggravate the trouble to a point beyond 
endurance. The giving to the wife power 
to obtain a divorce will not help much, but 
simply tend to weaken still further the 
marriage tie. Nothing can help surely 
and permanently but the growth of a sound 






118 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

public opinion, in regard to the position of 
the wife, that will, sooner or later, have 
its effect upon the laws of the country. 
Legislation once effected, all the rest will 
come, and the wife, secure in her home and 
her children, will be at the point where 
her new education can be of use to her 
in the administration of her domestic af- 
fairs and the training of her children ; 
and where she will finally become the 
friend and companion of her husband, in- 
stead of his mere waitress, seamstress, and 
housekeeper, — the plaything of his leisure 
moments, too often the victim of his ca- 
prices. 



CHAPTER V. 

OLD AGE. 

No Japanese woman is ashamed to show 
that she is getting along in years, but all 
take pains that every detail of the dress 
and coiffure shall show the full age of the 
wearer. The baby girl is dressed in the 
brightest of colors and the largest of pat- 
terns, and looks like a gay butterfly or 
tropical bird. As she grows older, colors 
become quieter, figures smaller, stripes 
narrower, until in old age she becomes a 
little gray moth or plain-colored sparrow. 
By the sophisticated eye, a woman's age 
can be told with considerable accuracy by 
the various little things about her cos- 
tume, 1 and no woman cares to appear 

1 Children wear their hair on top of their heads while 
very yoking, and the manner of arranging it is one of the 
distinctive marks of the age of the child. The marumagi, 
the style of headdress of married ladies, consisting of a 
large pnff of hair on the top of the head, diminishes in 
size with the age of the wearer until, at sixty or seventy, 
it is not more than a few inches in width. The number, 
size, and variety of ornamental hairpins, and the tortoise- 
ahell comb worn in front, all vary with the age. 



120 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

younger than her real age, or hesitates to 
tell with entire frankness the number of 
years that have passed over her head. 

The reason for this lies, at least in part, 
in the fact that every woman looks forward 
to the period of old age as the time when 
she will attain freedom from her life-long 
service to those about her, — will be in the 
position of adviser of her sons, and director 
of her daughters-in-law ; will be a person 
of much consideration in the family, privi- 
leged to amuse herself in various ways, to 
speak her own mind on most subjects, and 
to be waited upon and cared for by chil- 
dren and grandchildren, in return for her 
long years of faithful service in the house- 
hold. Should her sight and other bodily 
powers remain good, she will doubtless 
perform many light tasks for the general 
good, will seldoih sit idle by herself, but 
will help about the sewing and mending, 
the marketing, shopping, housework, and 
care of the babies, tell stories to her grand- 
children after their lessons are learned, 
give the benefit of her years of experience 
to the young people who are still bearing 
the heat and burden of the day, and, by her 
prayers and visits to the temple at stated 



OLD AGE. 121 

seasous, will secure the favor of the gods 
for the whole family, as well as make her 
own preparations for entry into the great 
unknown toward which she is rapidly drift- 
ing. Is there wonder that the young 
wife, steering her course with difficulty 
among the many shoals and whirlpools of 
early married life, looks forward with an- 
ticipation to the period of comparative rest 
and security that comes at the end of the 
voyage ? As she bears all things, endures 
all things, suffers long, and is kind, as she 
serves her mother-in-law, manages her 
husband's household, cares for her babies, 
the thought that cheers and encourages 
her in her busy and not too happy life is 
the thought of the sunny calm of old age, 
when she can lay her burdens and cares 
on younger shoulders, and bask in the 
warmth and sunshine which this Indian 
Summer of her life will bring to her. 

In the code of morals of the Japanese, 
obedience to father, husband, or son is ex- 
alted into the chief womanly virtue, but 
the obedience and respect of children, both 
male and female, to their parents, also oc- 
cupies a prominent position in their ethical 
system. Hence, in this latter stage of a 



122 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

woman's career, the obedience expected of 
her is often only nominal, and in any case 
is not so absolute and unquestioning as 
that of the early period ; and the consid- 
eration and respect that a son is bound to 
show to his mother necessitates a care of 
her comfort, and a consultation of her 
wishes, that renders her position one of 
much greater freedom than can be ob- 
tained by any woman earlier in life. She 
has, besides, reached an age when she is 
not expected to remain at home, and she 
may go out into the streets, to the theatre, 
or other shows, without the least restraint 
or fear of losing her dignity. 

A Japanese woman loses her beauty early. 
At thirty-five her fresh color is usually en- 
tirely gone, her eyes have begun to sink a 
little in their sockets, her youthful round- 
ness and symmetry of figure have given 
place to an absolute leanness, her abundant 
black hair has grown thin, and much care 
and anxiety have given her face a pathetic 
expression of quiet endurance. One sel- 
dom sees a face that indicates a soured 
temper or a cross disposition, but the lines 
that show themselves as the years go by 
are lines that indicate suffering and dis- 



OLD AGE. 123 

appointment, patiently and sweetly borne. 
The lips never forget to smile ; the voice 
remains always cheerful and sympathetic, 
never grows peevish and worried, as is too 
often the case with overworked or disap- 
pointed women in this country. But youth 
with its hopeful outlook, its plans and its 
ambitions, gives way to age with its peace- 
ful waiting for the end, with only a brief 
struggle for its place ; and the woman of 
thirty- five is just at the point when she 
has bid good-by to her youth, and, having 
little to hope for in her middle life, is 
doing her work faithfully, and looking for- 
ward to an old age of privilege and au- 
thority, the mistress of her son's house, 
and the ruler of the little domain of home. 
But I have spoken so far only of those 
happy women whose sous grow to maturity, 
and who manage to evade the dangerous 
reefs of divorce upon which so many lives 
are shipwrecked. What becomes of the 
hundreds who have no children to rise up 
and call them blessed, but who have in 
old age to live as dependents upon their 
brothers or nephews? Even these, who 
in this country often lead hard and unre- 
warded lives of toil among their happier 



124 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

relatives, find in old age a pleasanter lot 
than that of youth. Many such old ladies 
I have met, whose short hair or shaven 
heads proclaim to all who see them that 
the sorrow of widowhood has taken from 
them the joy that falls to other women, 
but whose cheerful, wrinkled faces and 
happy, childlike ways have given one a feel- 
ing of pleasure that the sorrow is past, and 
peace and rest have come to their declin- 
ing years. Fulfilling what little house- 
hold tasks they can, respected and self- 
respecting members of the household, the 
Bd San, or Aunty, is not far removed in 
the honor and affection of the children 
from the Bd San, or Grandma, but both 
alike find a peaceful shelter in the homes 
of those nearest and dearest to them. 

One of the happiest old ladies I have 
ever seen was one who had had a rough 
and stormy life. The mother of many 
children, most of whom had died in in- 
fancy, she was at last left childless and a 
widow. In her children's death the last 
tie that bound her to her husband's family 
was broken, and, rather than be a burden 
to them, she made her home for many 
years with her own younger brother, tak- 



OLD AGE. 125 

ing up again the many cares and duties of 
a mother's life in sharing with the mother 
the bringing up of a large family of chil- 
dren. One by one, from the oldest to the 
youngest, each has learned to love the old 
aunty, to be hilled asleep on her back, and 
to go to her in trouble when mother's 
hands were too full of work. Many the 
caress received, the drives and walks en- 
joyed in her company, the toys and can- 
dies that came out unexpectedly from the 
depths of mysterious drawers, to comfort 
many an hour of childish grief. That was 
years ago, and the old aunty's hard times 
are nearly over. Hale and hearty at three- 
score years and ten, she has seen these 
children grow up one by one, until now 
some have gone to new homes of their 
own. Her bent form and wrinkled face 
are ever welcome to her children, — hers 
by the right of years of patient care and 
toil for them. They now, in their turn, 
enjoy giving her pleasure, and return to 
her all the love she has lavished upon 
them. It is a joy to see her childlike 
pride and confidence in them all, and to 
know that they have filled the place left 
vacant by the dead with whom had died 
all her hopes of earthly happiness. 



126 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

The old women of Japan, — how their 
withered faces, bent frames, and shrunken, 
yellow hands abide in one's memory ! One 
seldom sees among them what we would 
call beauty, for the almost universal shrink- 
ing with age that takes place among the 
Japanese covers the face with multitudi- 
nous wrinkles, and produces the effect of a 
withered russet apple ; for the skin, which 
in youth is usually brightened by red 
cheeks and glossy black hair, in old age, 
when color leaves cheek and hair, has a 
curiously yellow and parchment-like look. 
But with all their wrinkles and ugliness, 
there is a peculiar charm about the old 
women of Japan. 

In Tokyo, when the grass grows long 
upon your lawn, and you send to the gar- 
dener to come and cut it, no boy with 
patent lawn-mower, nor stalwart country- 
man with scythe and sickle, answers your 
summons, but some morning you awake to 
find your lawn covered with old women. 
The much -washed cotton garments are 
faded to a light blue, the exact match of 
the light blue cotton towels in which their 
heads are swathed, and on hands and 
knees, each armed with an enormous pair 



OLD AGE. 127 

of shears, the old ladies clip and chatter 
cheerfully all day long", until the lawn is as 
smooth as velvet under their careful cut- 
ting. An occasional rest under a tree, for 
pipes and tea, is the time for much cheer- 
ful talk and gossip ; but the work, though 
done slowly and with due attention to the 
comfort of the worker, is well done, and 
certainly accomplished as rapidly as any 
one could expect of laborers who earn only 
from eight to twelve cents a clay. Another 
employment for this same class of laborers 
is the picking of moss and grass from the 
crevices of the great walls that inclose the 
moats and embankments of the capital. 
Mounted on little ladders, they pick and 
scrape with knives until the wall is clear 
and fresh, with no insidious growth to push 
the great uncemented stones out of their 
places. 

In contrast with these humble but cheer- 
ful toilers may be mentioned another class 
of women, often met with in the great 
cities. Dressed in rags and with covered 
heads and faces, they wander about the 
streets playing the samisen outside the 
latticed windows, and singing with cracked 
voices some wailing melody. As they go 



128 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

from house to house, gaining a miserable 
pittance by their weird music, they seem 
the embodiment of all that is hopeless and 
broken-hearted. What they are or whence 
they come, I know not, but they always re- 
mind me of the grasshopper in the fable, 
who danced and sang through the brief 
summer, to come, wailing and wretched, 
seeking aid from her thriftier neighbor 
when at last the winter closed in upon her. 
As one rides about the streets, one often 
sees a little, white-haired old woman trot- 
ting about with a yoke over her shoulders 
from which are suspended two swinging 
baskets, filled with fresh vegetables. The 
fact that her hair is still growing to its 
natural length shows that she is still a wife 
and not a widow ; her worn and patched 
blue cotton clothes, bleached light from 
much washing, show that extreme poverty 
is her lot in life ; and as she hobbles along 
with the gait peculiar to those who carry a 
yoke, my thoughts are busy with her home, 
which, though poor and small, is doubtless 
clean and comfortable, but my eye follows 
her through the city's crowd, where la- 
borer, soldier, student, and high official 
jostle each other by the way. Suddenly I 



OLD AGE. 129 

see her pause before the gateway of a tem- 
ple. She sets her burden down, and there 
in the midst of the bustling throng, with 
bowed head, folded hands, and moving lips, 
she invokes her god, snatching this mo- 
ment from her busy life to seek a blessing 
for herself and her dear ones. The throng 
moves busily on, making a little eddy 
around the burden she has laid down, but 
paying no heed to the devout little figure 
standing there; then in a moment the 
prayer is finished ; she stoops, picks up her 
yoke, balauces it on her shoulders, and 
moves on with the crowd, to do her share 
while her strength lasts, and to be cared 
for tenderly, I doubt not, by children and 
children's children when her work is done. 
Another picture comes to me, too, a pic- 
ture of one whose memory is an inspiring 
thought to the many who have the honor 
to call her " mother." A stately old lady, 
left a widow many years ago, before the 
recent changes had wrought havoc prepar- 
atory to further progress, she seemed al- 
ways to me the model of a mother of the 
old school. Herself a woman of thorough 
classical education, her example and teach- 
ing were to both sons and daughters a con- 



130 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

stant inspiration ; and in her old age she 
found herself the honored head of a family 
well known in the arts of war and peace, 
a goodly company of sons and daughters, 
every one of them heirs of her spirit and 
of her intellect. Though conservative her- 
self, and always clinging to the old cus- 
toms, she put no block in the path of her 
children's progress, and her fine character, 
heroic spirit, and stanch loyalty to what 
she believed were worth more to her chil- 
dren than anything else could have been. 
Tried by war, by siege, by banishment, by 
danger and sufferings of all kinds, to her 
was given at last an old age of prosperity 
among children of whom she might well 
be proud. Keeping her physical vigor to 
the end, and dying at last, after an illness 
of only two days, her spirit passed out into 
the great unknown, ready to meet its dan- 
gers as bravely as she had met those of 
earth, or to enjoy its rest as sweetly and 
appreciatively as she had enjoyed that of 
her old age in the house of her oldest son. 
My acquaintance with her was limited by 
our lack of common language, but was a 
most admiring and appreciative one on my 
side; and I esteem it one of the chief 



OLD AGE. 131 

honors of my stay in Japan, that upon my 
last meeting with her, two weeks before 
her death, she gave me her wrinkled but 
still beautiful and delicately shaped hand 
at parting, — a deference to foreign cus- 
toms that she only paid upon special occa- 
sions. 

Two weeks later, amid such rain as Jap- 
anese skies know all too well how to let 
fall, I attended her funeral at the ceme- 
tery of Aoyama. The cemetery chapel was 
crowded, but a place was reserved for me, 
on account of special ties that bound me 
to the family, just behind the long Hue of 
white-robed mourners. In the Buddhist 
faith she had lived, and by the Buddhist 
ceremonial she was buried, — the chanted 
ritual, the gorgeously robed priests, and 
the heavy smell of incense in the air re- 
minding one of a Roman Catholic cere- 
mony. The white wooden coffin was placed 
upon a bier at the entrance to the chapel, 
and when the priests had done their work, 
and the ecclesiastical ceremony was over, 
the relatives arose, one by one, walked over 
to the coffin, bowed low before it, and 
placed a grain of incense upon the little 
censer that stood on a table before the 



132 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

bier, then, bowing again, retired to their 
places. Slowly and solemnly, from the tall 
soldier son, his hair already streaked with 
gray, to the two-year-old grandchild, all 
paid this last token of respect to a noble 
spirit; and after the relatives the guests, 
each in the order of rank or nearness to 
the deceased, stepped forward and per- 
formed the same ceremony before leaving 
the room. What the meaning of the rite 
was, I did not know, whether a worship of 
strange gods or no; but to me, as I per- 
formed the act, it only signified the honor 
in which I held the memory of a heroic 
woman who had done well her part in the 
world according to the light that God had 
given her. 

Japanese art loves to picture the old wo- 
man with her kindly, wrinkled face, leaving 
out no wrinkle of them all, but giving with 
equal truthfulness the charm of expression 
that one finds in them. Long life is de- 
sired by all as passionately as by ancient 
Hebrew poet and psalmist, and with good 
reason, for only by long life can a woman at- 
tain the greatest honor and happiness. We 
often exclaim in impatience at the thought 
of the weakness and dependence of old 



OLD AGE. 133 

age, and pray that we may die in the full- 
ness of our powers, before the decay of ad- 
vancing years has made us a burden upon 
our friends. But in Japan, dependence is 
the lot of woman, and the dependence of 
old age is that which is most respected 
and considered. An aged parent is never 
a burden, is treated by all with the greatest 
love and tenderness ; and if times are hard, 
and food and other comforts are scarce, the 
children, as a matter of course, deprive 
themselves and their children to give un- 
grudgingly to their old father and mother. 
Faults there are many in the Japanese 
social system, but ingratitude to parents, 
or disrespect to the aged, must not be 
named among them ; and Young America 
may learn a salutary lesson by the study of 
the place that old people occupy in the 
home. 

It is not only for the women of Japan, 
but for the men as well, that old age is a 
time of peace and happiness. When a man 
reaches the age of fifty or thereabouts, 
often while apparently in the height of his 
vigor, he gives up his work or business and 
retires, leaving all the property and income 
to the care of his eldest son, upon whom 



134 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

he becomes entirely dependent for his sup- 
port. 1 This support is never begrudged 
him, for the care of parents by their chil- 
dren is as much a matter of course in 
Japan as the care of children by those who 
give them birth. A man thus rarely makes 
provision for the future, and looks with 
scorn on foreign customs which seem to 
betoken a fear lest, in old age, ungrateful 
children may neglect their parents and 
cast them aside. The feeling, so strong in 
America, that dependence is of itself irk- 
some and a thing to be dreaded, is al- 
together strange to the Japanese mind. 
The married son does not care to take his 
wife to a new and independent home of his 
own, and to support her and her children by 
his own labor or on his own income, but he 
takes her to his father's house, and thinks 
it no shame that his family live upon his 
parents. But in return, when the parents 
wish to retire from active life, the son takes 
upon himself ungrudgingly the burden of 

1 It is this custom of going into early retirement that 
made it possible for the nobles in old times to keep the 
Emperor always a child. The ruling Emperor would be 
induced to retire from the throne at the age of sixteen or 
twenty ; thus making room for some baby, who would be 
in his turn the puppet of his ambitious courtiers. 



OLD AGE. 135 

their support, and the bread of dependence 
is never bitter to the parents' lips, for it is 
given freely. To the time-honored Euro- 
pean belief, that a young* man must be in- 
dependent and enterprising 1 in early life in 
order to lay by for old age, the Japanese will 
answer that children in Japan are taught 
to love their parents rather than ease and 
luxury, and that care for the future is 
not the necessity that it is in Europe 
and America, where money is above every- 
thing else, — even filial love. This habit of 
thought may account for the utter want of 
provision for the future, and the disregard 
for things pertaining to the accumulation 
of wealth, which often strikes curiously the 
foreigner in Japan. A Japanese considers 
his provision for the future made when he 
has brought up and educated for useful- 
ness a large family of children. He in- 
vests his capital in their support and edu- 
cation, secure of bountiful returns in their 
gratitude and care for his old age. It is 
hard for the men of old Japan to under- 
stand the rush and struggle for riches in 
America, — a struggle that too often leaves 
not a pause for rest or quiet pleasure until 
sickness or death overtakes the indefatiga- 



136 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

ble worker. The go inkyo 1 of Japan is glad 
enough to lay clown early in life the cares 
of the world, to have a few years of calm 
and peace, undisturbed by responsibilities 
or cares for outside matters. If he be an 
artist or a poet, he may, uninterrupted, 
spend his days with his beloved art. If he 
is fond of the ceremonial tea, he has whole 
afternoons that he may devote to this aes- 
thetic repast ; and even if he has none of 
these higher tastes, he will always have 
congenial friends who are ready to share 
the sake bottle, to join in a quiet smoke over 
the hibachi, or to play the deep-engrossing 
game of go, or shogi, the Japanese chess. 
To the Japanese mind, to be in the com- 
pany of a few kindred souls, to spend the 
long hours of a summer's afternoon at the 
ceremonial tea party, sipping tea and con- 
versing in a leisurely manner on various 
subjects, is an enjoyment second to none. 
A cultivated Japanese of the old times must 
receive an education fitting him especially 

1 Go Inkyo Sama is the title belonging- to a retired old 
gentleman or old lady. Inkyo is the name of the house or 
suite of rooms set apart for such a person, and the title 
itself is made up of this word with the Chinese honorific 
go and the title Sama, the same as San, used in address- 
ing all persons except inferiors. 



OLD AGE. 137 

for such pursuits. At these meetings of 
friends, artistically or poetically inclined, 
the time is spent in making poems and ex- 
changing wittily turned sentiments, to he 
read, commented on, and responded to; or 
in the making* of drawings, with a few bold 
strokes of the brush, in illustration of some 
subject given out. Such enjoyments as 
these, the Japanese believe, cannot be ap- 
preciated or even understood by the prac- 
tical, rush-ahead American, the product of 
the wonderful but material civilization of 
the West. 

Thus, amid enjoyments and easy labors 
suited to their closing years, the elder 
couple spend their days with the young 
people, cared for and protected by them. 
Sometimes there will be a separate suite 
of rooms provided for them ; sometimes a 
little house away from the noises of the 
household, and separated from the main 
building by a well-kept little gardeu. In 
any case, as long as they live they will 
spend their days in quiet and peace ; and it 
is to this haven, the inkyo, that all Japa- 
nese look forward, a? to the time when 
they may carry out their own inclinations 
and tastes with an income provided for the 
rest of their days. 



CHAPTER VI. 

COUET LIFE. 

The court of the Emperor was, in the 
early ages of Japan, the centre of whatever 
culture and refinement the country could 
boast, and the emperors themselves took 
an active part in the promotion of civiliza- 
tion. The earliest history of Japan is so 
wrapped in the mists of legend and tradi- 
tion that only here and there do we get 
glimpses of heroic figures, — leaders in 
those early days. Demigods they seem, chil- 
dren of Heaven, receiving from Heaven by 
special revelation the wisdom or strength 
by means of which they conquered their 
enemies, or gave to their subjects new arts 
and better laws. The traditional emperors, 
the early descendants of the great Jimmu 
Tenno, 1 seem to have been merely conquer- 

1 The Japanese claim for their present Emperor direct 
descent from Jimmu Tenno, the Son of the Gods; and 
it is for this reason that the Emperor is supposed to he 
divine, and the representative of the gods on the earth, 



COURT LIFE. 139 

ing chieftains, who by virtue of their de- 
scent were regarded as divine, but who 
lived the simple, hardy life of the savage 
king, surrounded by wives and concubines, 
done homage to by armed retainers and 
subject chiefs, but living in rude huts, and 
moving in and out among the soldiers, not 
in the least retired into the mysterious sol- 
itude which in later days enveloped the 
Son of the Gods. The first emperors ruled 
not only by divine right, but by personal 
force and valor ; and the stories of the val- 
iant deeds of these early rulers kept strong 
the faith of the people in the divine quali- 
ties of the imperial house during the hun- 
dreds of years when the Emperor was a 
mere puppet in the bauds of ambitious and 
powerful nobles. 

Towards the end of this legendary period, 
a figure comes into view that for heroic 
qualities cannot be excelled in the annals 
of any nation, — Jingu Kogo, the conqueror 

The dynasty, for about twenty-five hundred years since 
Jinimu Tenno, has never been broken. It must, however, 
be said in connection with this statement, that the Japa- 
nese family is a much looser organization than that known 
to our Western civilization, on account of the customs of 
concubinage and adoption, and that descent through fam- 
ily lines is not necessarily actual descent by blood. 



140 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

of Corea, who alone, among the nine female 
rulers of Japan, has made an era in the 
national history. She seems to have been 
from the beginning, like Jeanne D'Arc, a 
hearer of divine voices; and through her 
was conveyed to her unbelieving husband 
a divine command, to take ship and sail 
westward to the conquest of an unknown 
land. Her husband questioned the authen- 
ticity of the message, took the earthly and 
practical view that, as there was no land 
to be seen in the westward, there could be 
no land there, and refused to organize any 
expedition in fulfillment of the command ; 
but for his unbelief was sternly told that he 
should never see the land, but that his wife 
should conquer it for the son whom she 
should bear after the father's death. This 
message from the gods was fulfilled. The 
Emperor died in battle shortly after, and 
the Empress, after suppressing the rebel- 
lion in which her husband had been killed, 
proceeded to organize an expedition for the 
conquest of the unknown land beyond the 
western sea. By as many signs as those 
required by Gideon to assure himself of his 
divine mission, the Empress tested the call 
that had come to her, but at last, satisfied 



COURT LIFE. 141 

that the voices were from Heaven, she gave 
her orders for the collection of troops and 
the building* of a navy. I quote from Griffis 
the inspiring words with which she ad- 
dressed her generals : " The safety or de- 
struction of our country depends upon this 
enterprise. I intrust the details to you. 
It will be your fault if they are not carried 
out. I am a woman and young. I shall 
disguise myself as a man, and undertake 
this gallant expedition, trusting to the 
gods and to my troops and captains. We 
shall acquire a wealthy country. The glory 
is yours, if we succeed ; if we fail, the guilt 
and disgrace shall be mine." What won- 
der that her captains responded to such an 
appeal, and that the work of recruiting and 
shipbuilding began with a will ! It was a 
long preparation that was required — some- 
times, to the impatient woman, it seemed un- 
necessarily slow — but by continual prayer 
and offerings she appealed to the gods for 
aid ; and at last all was ready, and the brave 
array of ships set sail for the unknown 
shore, the Empress feeling within her the 
new inspiration of hope for her babe as yet 
unborn. Heaven smiled upon them from 
the start. The clearest of skies, the most 



142 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

favoring of breezes, the smoothest of seas, 
favored the god-sent expedition ; and tradi- 
tion says that even the fishes swarmed in 
shoals about their keels, and carried them 
on to their desired haven. The fleet ran 
safely across to southern Corea, but instead 
of finding battles and struggles awaiting 
them, the king of the country met them on 
the beach to receive and tender allegiance to 
the invaders, whose unexpected appearance 
from the unexplored East had led the na- 
tives to believe that their gods had for- 
saken them. The expedition returned laden 
with vast wealth, not the spoil of battle, 
but the peaceful tribute of a bloodless vic- 
tory ; and from that time forward Japan, 
through Corea, and later by direct contact 
with China itself, began to receive and as- 
similate the civilization, arts, and religions 
of China. Thus through a woman Japan 
received the start along the line of prog- 
ress which made her what she is to-day, 
for the sequel of Jingu Kogo's Corean ex- 
pedition was the introduction of almost 
everything which we regard as peculiar 
to civilized countries. With characteristic 
belittling of the woman and exalting of 
the man, the whole martial career of the 



COURT LIFE. 143 

Empress is ascribed to the influence of her 
son as yet unborn, — a son who by his valor 
and prowess has secured for his deified 
spirit the position of God of War in the 
Japanese pantheon. We should say that 
pre-natal influences and heredity produced 
the heroic son ; the Japanese reason from 
the other end, and show that all the noble 
qualities of the mother were produced by 
the influence of the unborn babe. 

With the introduction of literature, art, 
and Buddhism, a change took place in 
the relations of the court to the people. 
About the Emperor's throne there gathered 
not only soldiers and governors, but the 
learned, the accomplished, the witty, the 
artistic, who found in the Emperor and the 
court nobles munificent patrons by whom 
they were supported, and before whom they 
laid whatever pearls they were able to pro- 
duce. The new culture sought not the clash 
of arms and the shout of soldiers, but the 
quiet and refinement of palaces and gardens 
far removed from the noise and clamor of 
the world. And while emperors sought to 
encourage the new learning and civiliza- 
tion, and to soften the warlike qualities of 
the people about them, there was a frontier 



144 JAPANESE GIELS AND WOMEN. 

along" which the savages still made raids 
into the territory which the Japanese had 
wrested from them, and which it required 
a strong arm and a quick hand to guard 
for the defense of the people. But the 
Emperor gradually gave up the personal 
leadership in war, and passed the duty of 
defending the nation into the hands of one 
or another of the great noble families. The 
nobles were not by any means slow to see 
the advantage to be gained for themselves 
by the possession of the military power in 
an age when might made right, even more 
than it does to-day, and when force, used 
judiciously and with proper deference to 
the prejudices of the people, could be made 
to give to its possessor power even over 
the Emperor himself. And so gradually, 
in the pursuit of the new culture and the 
new religion, the emperors withdrew them- 
selves more and more into seclusion, and 
the court became a little world in itself, — 
a centre of culture and refinement into 
which few excitements of war or politics 
ever came. While the great nobles wran- 
gled for the possession of the power, 
schemed and fought and turned the nation 
upside down ; while the heroes of the coun- 



COURT LIFE. 145 

try rose, lived, fought, and died, — the Em- 
peror, amid his ladies and his courtiers, his 
priests and his literary men, spent his life 
in a world of his own ; thinking more of 
this pair of bright eyes, that new and 
charming poem, the other witty saying 
of those about him, than of the king- 
dom that he ruled by divine right ; and 
retiring, after ten years or so of puppet 
kinghood, from the seclusion of his court 
to the deeper seclusion of some Buddhist 
monastery. 

Within the sacred precincts of the court, 
much time was given to such games and 
pastimes as were not too rude or noisy 
for the refinement that the new culture 
brought with it. Polo, football, hunting 
with falcons, archery, etc., were exercises 
not unworthy of even the most refined of 
gentlemen, and certain noble families w r ere 
trained hereditarily in the execution of cer- 
tain stately, antique dances, many of them 
of Chinese or Corean origin. The ladies, 
in trailing garments and with flowing hair, 
reaching often below the knees, played a 
not inconspicuous part, not only because of 
their beauty and grace, but for their quick- 
ness of wit, their learning in the classics,, 



146 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

their skill in repartee, and their quaint 
fancies, which they emhodied in poetic 
form. 1 

Much attention was given to that har- 
mony of art with nature that the Japanese 
taste makes the sine qua non of all true 
artistic effort. The gorgeously embroid- 
ered gowns must change with the chan- 
ging season, so that the cherry succeeds 
the plum, the wistaria the cherry, and so on 
through the whole calendar of flowers, upon 
the silken robes of the court, as regularly 
as in the garden that graces the palace 
grounds. And so with the confectionery, 
which in Japan is made in dainty imita- 
tion of flowers and fruits. The chrysan- 
themum blooms in sugar no earlier than 

1 In ancient times, before the long civil wars of the 
Middle Ages, much attention was given by both men and 
women to poetry, and many of the classics of Japanese 
literature are the works of women. Among these dis- 
tinguished writers can be mentioned Murasaki Shikibu, 
Seisho Nagon, and Is&io Taiyu, all court ladies in the 
time of the Emperor Ichijo (about 1000 A. D.). The court 
at that time was the centre of learning, and much encour- 
agement was given by the Emperor to literary pursuits, 
the cultivation of poetry, and music. The Emperor gath- 
ered around him talented men and women, but the great 
works that remain are, strange to say, mostly those of 
women. 



COURT LIFE. 147 

on its own stalk ; the little golden orange, 
with its dark green leaves, is on the confec- 
tioner's list in winter, when the real orange 
is yellow on its tree. The very decorations 
of the palace must be changed with the 
changing of the months ; and kakemono and 
vase are alternately stored in the kura and 
brought out to decorate the room, accord- 
ing as their designs seem in harmony with 
the mood of Nature. This effort to har- 
monize Nature and Art is seen to-day, not 
only in the splendid furnishings of the 
court, but all through the decorative art 
of Japan. In every house the decorations 
are changed to suit the changing seasons. 
Through the years when Japan was 
adopting the civilization of China, a dan- 
ger threatened the nation, — the same 
danger that threatens it to-day : it was the 
danger lest the adoption of so much that 
was foreign should result in a servile copy- 
ing of all that was not Japanese, and lest 
the introduction of literature, art, and nu- 
merous hitherto unknown luxuries should 
take from the people their independence, 
patriotism, and manliness. But this result 
was happily avoided ; and at a time when 
the language was in danger of being swept 



148 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

almost out of existence by the introduction 
of Chinese learning through Chinese let- 
ters, the women of Japan, not only in their 
homes and conversation, but in the poetry 
and lighter literature of the country, pre- 
served a strain of pure and graceful Jap- 
anese, and produced some of the standard 
works of a distinctly national literature. 
Favor at court to-day, as in the oldeu 
times, is the reward, not of mere rank, 
beauty, and grace of person, but must be 
obtained through the same intellectual en- 
dowments, polished by years of education, 
that made so many women famous in the 
mediaeval history of Japan. Many court 
ladies have read much of their national 
literature, so that they are able to appre- 
ciate the bonmots which contain allusions 
in many cases to old poems, or plays on 
words ; and are able to write and present 
to others, at fitting times, those graceful 
but untranslatable turns of phrase which 
form the bulk of Japanese poetry. 1 Even 

1 The court ladies in immediate contact with the Em- 
peror and Empress are selected from the daughters of 
the nobles. Only in the present reign have a few samu- 
rai women risen to high positions at court on account of 
special talents. 



COURT LIFE. 149 

iii this busy era of Meiji, 1 the Emperor and 
his court keep up the old-time customs, 
and strive to promote a love of the beauti- 
ful poetry of Japan. At each New Year 
some subject appropriate to the time is 
chosen and publicly announced. Poems 
may be written upon this subject by any 
one in the whole realm, and may be sent 
to the palace before a certain date fixed as 
the time for closing" the list of competitors. 
All the poems thus sent are examined by 
competent judges, who select the best five 
and send them to the Emperor, an honor 
more desired by the writers than the most 
favorable of reviews or the largest of emol- 
uments are desired by American poets. 
Many of the other poems are published in 
the newspapers. It is interesting to note 
that many of the prominent men and wo- 
men of the country are known as com- 
petitors, and that many of the court ladies 
join in the contest. 

There are also, at the palace, frequent 
meetings of the poets and lovers of poetry 

1 Meiji (Enlightened Rule) is the name of the era that 
began with the present Emperor's accession to the throne. 
The year A. d. 1890 is the twenty-third year o£ Meiji, and 
would be so designated in all Japanese dates. 



150 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

connected with the court. At these meet- 
ings poems are composed for the enter- 
tainment of the Emperor and Empress, as 
well as for the amusement of the poets 
themselves. 

In the school recently established for the 
daughters of the nobles, under the charge 
of the imperial household, much attention 
is given to the work of thoroughly ground- 
ing the scholars in the Japanese language 
and literature, and also to making them 
skillful in the art of composing poetry. At 
the head of the school, in the highest posi- 
tion held by any woman in the employ of 
the government, is a former court lady, 
who is second to none in the kingdom, not 
only in her knowledge of all that belongs 
to court etiquette, but in her study of the 
history and literature of her own people, 
and in her skill in the composition of these 
dainty poems. A year or two ago, when 
one of the scholars in the school died after 
a brief decline, her schoolmates, teachers, 
and school friends wrote poems upon her 
death, which they sent to the bereaved 
parents. 

It is difficult for any Japanese, much 
more so for a foreigner, to penetrate into 



COURT LIFE. 151 

the seclusion of the palace and see any- 
thing of the life there, except what is 
shown to the public in the occasional en- 
tertainments given at court, such as for- 
mal receptions and dinner parties. In 
1889, the new palace, built on the site of 
the old Tokugawa Castle, burnt seventeen 
years ago, was finally completed; and it 
was my privilege to see, before the removal 
of the court, not only the grand reception 
rooms, throne-room, and dining-room, but 
also the private apartments of the Em- 
peror and Empress. The palace is built in 
Japanese style, surrounded by the old cas- 
tle moats, but there are many foreign ad- 
ditions to the palace and grounds. It is 
heated and lighted in foreign style, and 
the larger rooms are all furnished after 
the magnificent manner of European pal- 
aces; while the lacquer work, carvings, 
and gorgeous paneled ceilings remind one 
of the finest of Japanese temples. The 
private apartments of the Emperor and 
Empress are, on the other hand, most 
simple, and in thorough Japanese style; 
and though the woodwork and polished 
floors of the corridors are very beautiful, 
the paintings and lacquer work most ex- 



152 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

quisite, there is little in this simplicity 
to denote the abode of royalty. It seems 
that their majesties, though outwardly con- 
forming to many European customs, and 
to the European manner of dress, prefer 
to live in Japanese ways, on matted, not 
carpeted floors, reposing on them rather 
than on chairs and beds. 

Their apartments are not large ; each 
suite consisting of three rooms opening 
out of each other, the Empress's rooms 
being slightly smaller than the Emper- 
or's, and those of the young Prince Haru, 
the heir apparent, again a little smaller. 
The young prince has a residence of his 
own, and it is only on his visits that he 
occupies his apartments in his father's 
palace. There are also rooms for the Em- 
press dowager to occupy on her occasional 
visits. All of these apartments are quite 
close together in one part of the palace, 
and are connected by halls ; but the pri- 
vate rooms of the court ladies are in an 
entirely separate place, quite removed, and 
only connected with the main building 
by a long, narrow passageway, running 
through the garden. There, in the rooms 
assigned to them, each one has her own 



COURT LIFE. 153 

private establishment, where she stays 
when she is not on duty in attendance on 
the Emperor and Empress. Each lady has 
her own servants, and sometimes a younger 
sister or a dependent may be living there 
with her, though they are entirely sepa- 
rate from the court and the life there, and 
must never be seen in any of the other 
parts of the building. In these rooms, 
which are like little homes in themselves, 
cooking and housekeeping are done, en- 
tirely independent of the other parts of 
the great palace ; and the tradesmen find 
their way through some back gate to these 
little establishments, supplying them with 
all the necessaries of life, as well as the 
luxuries. 

A court lady is a personage of distinc- 
tion, and lives in comparative ease and 
luxury, with plenty of servants to do all 
the necessary work. Besides her salary, 
which of course varies with the rank and 
the duties performed, but is always liberal 
enough to cover the necessary expenses of 
dress, the court lady receives many presents 
from the Emperor and Empress, which 
make her position one of much luxury. 

The etiquette of the imperial household 



154 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

is very complicated and very strict, though 
many of the formalities of the olden times 
have been given up. The court ladies are 
models of conservatism. In order to he 
trained for the life there and its duties, 
they usually enter the court while mere 
children of ten or eleven, and serve ap- 
prenticeship to the older members. In 
the rigid seclusion of the palace they are 
strictly, almost severely, brought up, and 
trained in all the details of court etiquette. 
Cut off from all outside influences while 
young, the little court maidens are taught 
to go through an endless round of for- 
malities which they are made to think 
indispensable. These details of etiquette 
extend not only to all that concerns the 
imperial household, but to curious cus- 
toms among themselves, and in regard to 
their own habits. Many of these ideas 
have come down from one generation to 
another, within the narrow limits of the 
court, so that the life there is a curious 
world in itself, and very unlike that in 
ordinary Japanese homes. 

But among all the ladies of Japan to- 
day, — charming, intellectual, refined, and 
lovely as many of them are, — there is no 



COURT LIFE. 155 

one nobler, more accomplished, more beau- 
tiful in life and character, than the Em- 
press herself. The Emperor of Japan, 
though he may have many concubines, may 
have but one wife, and she must be chosen 
out of one of the five highest noble fami- 
lies. 1 Haru Ko, of the noble family of 
Ichijo, became Empress in the year 1868, 
one year after her husband, then a boy of 
seventeen, had ascended the throne, and 
the very year of the overthrow of the Sho- 
gunate, 2 and the restoration of the Em- 

1 The Empresses of Japan are not chosen from any 
branch of the imperial family, but from among the 
daughters of the five of the great kuge, or court nobles, 
■who are next in rank to the imperial princes. The 
choice usually rests with the Emperor or his advisers, and 
would be naturally given to the most worthy, whether in 
beauty or accomplishments. No doubt one reason why 
the Empress is regarded as far below the Emperor is, 
that she is not of royal blood, but one of the subjects of 
the Empire. In the old times, the daughters of the Em- 
peror could never marry, as all men were far beneath 
them in rank. These usually devoted their lives to re- 
ligion, and as Shinto priestesses or Buddhist nuns dwelt 
in the retirement of temple courts or the seclusion of 
cloisters. 

2 Tokugawa Shoguns were the military rulers of the 
•Tokugawa family, who held the power in Japan for a 

period of two hundred and fifty years. They are better 
known to Americans, perhaps, under the title of Tycoon 
(Great Prince), a name assumed, or rather revived, to im- 



156 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

peror to actual power and the leading part 
in the government. Reared amid the deep 
and scholarly seclusion of the old court at 
Kyoto, the young Empress found herself 
occupying a position very different from 
that for which she had been educated, — a 
position the duties and responsibilities of 
which grow more multifarious as the years 
go by. Instead of a life of rigid seclusion, 
unseeing and unseen, the Empress has had 
to go forth into the world, finding there 
the pleasures as well as the duties of actual 
leadership. With the removal of the court 
to Tokyo, and the reappearance of the Em- 
peror, in bodily form, before his people, 
there came new opportunities for the Em- 
press, and nobly has she used them. From 
the time when, in 1871, she gave audience 
to the five little girls of the samurai class 
who were just setting forth on a journey 
to America, there to study and fit them- 
selves to play a part in the Japan of the 
future, on through twenty years of change 

press the foreigners when Commodore Perry was nego- 
tiating- in regard to treaties. The Shogun held the daimios 
in forced subjection, — a subjection that was shaken in 
1862, and broken at last in the year 1868, when, by the 
fall of the Shogunate, the Emperor was restored to direct 
power over his people. 



COURT LIFE. 157 

and progress, the Empress Ham Ko has 
clone all that lay within her power to ad- 
vance the women of her country. Many 
stories are afloat which show the lovable 
character of the woman, and which have 
given her an abiding place in the affec- 
tions of the people. 

Some years ago, when the castle in 
Tokyo was burned, and the Emperor and 
Empress were obliged to take refuge in an 
old daimio's house, a place entirely lacking 
in luxuries and considerably out of repair, 
some one expressed to her the grief that 
all her people felt, that she should have to 
put up with so many inconveniences. Her 
response was a graceful little poem, in 
which she said that it mattered little how 
she was situated, as long as she was sure 
of a home in the hearts of her people. 
That home, which fire can never consume, 
she has undoubtedly made for herself. 

Upon another occasion, when Prince Iwa- 
kura, one of the leaders of Japan in the 
early days of the crisis through which the 
country is still passing, lay dying at his 
home, the Empress sent hira word that 
she was coming to visit him. The prince, 
afraid that he could not do honor to such 



158 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

a guest, sent her word back that he was 
very ill, and unable to make proper prepa- 
ration to entertain an Empress. To this 
the Empress replied that he need make no 
preparations for her, for she was coming', 
not as an Empress, but as the daughter of 
Ichijo, his old friend and colleague, and as 
such he could receive her. And then, set- 
ting aside imperial state and etiquette, she 
visited the dying statesman, and bright- 
ened his last hours with the thought of 
how lovely a woman stood as an example 
before the women of his beloved country. 

Many of the charities and schools of new 
Japan are under the Empress's special 
patronage ; and this does not mean simply 
that she allows her name to be used in 
connection with them, but it means that 
she thinks of them, studies them, asks 
questions about them, and even practices 
little economies that she may have the 
more money to give to them. There is a 
charity hospital in Tokyo, having in connec- 
tion with it a training school for nurses, 
that is one of the special objects of her 
care. Last year she gave to it, at the 
end of the year, the savings from her own 
private allowance, and concerning this act 



COURT LIFE. 159 

an editorial from the " Japan Mail " speaks 
as follows : — 

" The life of the Empress of Japan is an 
unvarying routine of faithful duty-doing 
and earnest charity. The public, indeed, 
hears with a certain listless in difference, 
engendered by habit, that her Majesty has 
visited this school, or gone round the wards 
at that hospital. Such incidents all seem 
to fall naturally into the routine of the 
imperial day's work. Yet to the Empress 
the weariness of long hours spent in class- 
rooms or in laboratories, or by the beds of 
the sick, must soon become quite intoler- 
able did she not contrive, out of the good- 
ness of her heart, to retain a keen and 
kindly interest in everything that concerns 
the welfare of her subjects. That her Ma- 
jesty does feel this interest, and that it 
grows rather than diminishes as the years 
go by, every one knows who has been pres- 
ent on any of the innumerable occasions 
when the promoters of some charity or the 
directors of some educational institution 
have presented, with merciless precision, 
all the petty details of their projects or 
organizations for the examination of the 
imperial lady. The latest evidence of her 



160 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

Majesty's benevolence is, however, more 
than usually striking". Since the founding 
of the Tokyo Charity Hospital, where so 
many poor women and children are treated, 
the Empress has watched the institution 
closely, has bestowed on it patronage of the 
most active and helpful character, aud has 
contributed handsomely to its funds. Little 
by little the hospital grew, extending its 
sphere of action and enlarging its minis- 
trations, until the need of more capacious 
premises — a need familiar to such under- 
takings — began to be strongly felt. The 
Empress, knowing this, cast about for some 
means of assisting this project. To prac- 
tice strict economy in her own personal 
expenses, and to devote whatever money 
might thus be saved from her yearly in- 
come to the aid of the hospital, appears 
to have suggested itself to her Majesty 
as the most feasible method of procedure. 
The result is, that a sum of 8,446 yen, 90 
sen, and 8 rin has just been handed over 
to Dr. Takagi, the chief promoter aud 
mainstay of the hospital, by Viscount 
Kagawa, one of her Majesty's chamber- 
lains. There is something picturesque 
about these sen and rin. They represent 



COURT LIFE. 161 

an account minutely and faithfully kept 
between her Majesty's unavoidable expenses 
and the benevolent impulse that constantly 
urged her to curtail them. Such gracious 
acts of sterling effort command admiration 
and love." 

Not very long ago, on one of her visits to 
the hospital, the Empress visited the chil- 
dren's ward, and took with her toys, which 
she gave with her own hand to each child 
there. When we consider that this hos- 
pital is free to the poorest and lowest per- 
son in Tokyo, and that twenty years ago the 
persons of the Emperor and Empress were 
so sacred in the eyes of the people that no 
one but the highest nobles and the near 
officials of the court could come into their 
presence, — that even these high uobles 
were received at court by the Emperor at 
a distance of many feet, and his face even 
then could not be seen, — when we think of 
all this, we can begin to appreciate what 
the Empress Haru Ko has done in bridg- 
ing the distance between herself and her 
people so that the poorest child of a beg- 
gar may receive a gift from her hand. In 
the country places to this day, there are 
peasants who yet believe that no one can 



162 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

look on the sacred face of the Emperor 
and live. 

The school for the daughters of the 
nobles, to which I have before referred, is 
an institution whose welfare the Empress 
has very closely at heart, for she sees the 
need of rightly combining the new and the 
old in the education of the young girls 
who will so soon be filling places in the 
court. At the opening of the school the 
Empress was present, and herself made a 
speech to the scholars ; and her visits, at 
intervals of one or two months, show her 
continued interest in the work that she 
has begun. Upon all state occasions, the 
scholars, standing with bowed heads as if 
in prayer, sing a little song written for 
them by the Empress herself; and at the 
graduating exercises, the speeches and ad- 
dresses are listened to by her with the pro- 
foundest interest. The best specimens of 
poetry, painting, and composition done by 
the scholars are sent to the palace for her 
inspection, and some of these are kept by 
her in her own private rooms. When she 
visits the class-rooms, she does not simply 
pass in and pass out again, as if doing a 
formal duty, but sits for half an hour or so 



COURT LIFE. 163 

listening intently, and watching the faces 
of the scholars as they recite. In sewing 
and cooking classes (for the daughters of 
the nobles are taught to sew and cook), 
she sometimes speaks to the scholars, ask- 
ing them questions. Upon one occasion 
she observed a young princess, a new-comer 
in the school, working somewhat awk- 
wardly with needle and thimble. " The 
first time, Princess, is it not ? " said the 
Empress, smiling, and the embarrassed 
Princess was obliged to confess that this 
was her first experience with those domes- 
tic implements. 

Sometimes in her leisure hours — and 
they are rare in her busy life — the Em- 
press amuses herself by receiving the lit- 
tle daughters of some imperial prince or 
nobleman, or even the children of some of 
the high officials. In the kindness of her 
heart, she takes great pleasure in seeing 
and talking to these little ones, some of 
whom are intensely awed by being in the 
presence of the Empress, while others, in 
their innocence, ignorant of all etiquette, 
prattle away unrestrainedly, to the great 
entertainment of the court ladies as well 
as of the Empress herself. These visits 



164 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

always end with some choice toy or gift, 
which the child takes home and keeps 
among her most valued treasures in re- 
membrance of her imperial hostess. In 
this way the Empress relieves the loneli- 
ness of the great palace, where the sound 
of childish voices is seldom heard, .for the 
Emperor's children are brought up in sep- 
arate establishments, and only pay occa- 
sional visits to the palace, until they have 
passed early childhood. 1 

The present life of the Empress is not 
very different from that of European roy- 
alty. Her carriage and escort are fre- 
quently met with in the streets of Tokyo 
as she goes or returns on one of her nu- 
merous visits of ceremony or beneficence. 
Policemen keep back the crowds of peo- 
ple w T ho always gather to see the imperial 
carriage, and stand respectfully, but with- 
out demonstration, while the horsemen 
carrying the imperial insignia, followed 

1 The Emperor's children are placed, from birth, in 
the care of some noble or high official, who becomes the 
guardian of the child. Certain persons are appointed as 
attendants, and the child with its retinue lives in the es- 
tablishment of the guardian, who is supposed to exercise 
his judgment and experience in the physical and mental 
training of the child. 



COUBT LIFE. 165 

closely by the carriages of the Empress 
and her attendants, pass by. The official 
Gazette announces almost daily visits by 
the Emperor, Empress, or other members 
of the imperial family, to different places of 
interest, — sometimes to various palaces 
in different parts of Tokyo, at other times 
to schools, charitable institutions or exhi- 
bitions, as well as occasional visits to the 
homes of high officials or nobles, for which 
great preparations are made by those who 
have the honor of entertaining their Ma- 
jesties. 

Among the amusements within the pal- 
ace grounds, one lately introduced, and at 
present in high favor, is that of horseback- 
riding, an exercise hitherto unknown to 
the ladies of Japan. The Empress and her 
ladies are said to be very fond of this ac- 
tive exercise, — an amusement forming a 
striking contrast to the quiet of former 
years. 

The grounds about the palaces in Tokyo 
are most beautifully laid out and cultivated, 
but not in that artificial manner, with reg- 
ular flower beds and trees at certain equal 
distances, which is seen so often in the 
highly cultivated grounds of the rich in 



166 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

this country. The landscape gardening of 
Japan keeps unchanged the wildness and 
beauty of nature, and imitates it closely. 
The famous flowers, however, are, in the 
imperial gardens, chauged by art and cul- 
tivated to their highest perfection, bloom- 
ing each season for the enjoyment of the 
members of the court. Especially is atten- 
tion given to the cultivation of the impe- 
rial flower of Japan, the chrysanthemum ; 
and some day in November, when this 
flower is in its perfection, the gates of the 
Akasaka palace are thrown open to invited 
guests, who are received in person by the 
Emperor and Empress. Here the rarest 
species of this favorite flower, and the odd- 
est colors and shapes, the results of much 
care and cultivation, are exhibited in spa- 
cious beds, shaded by temporary roofs of 
bamboo twigs and decorated with the im- 
perial flags. This is the great chrysanthe- 
mum party of the Emperor, and another 
of similar character is given in the spring 
under the flower-laden boughs of the cherry 
trees. 

In these various ways the Empress shows 
herself to her people, — a gracious and 
lovely figure, though distant, as she needs 



COURT LIFE. 167 

must be, from common, every -day life. 
Only by glimpses do tbe people know her, 
but those glimpses reveal enough to ex- 
cite the warmest admiration, the most ten- 
der love. Childless herself, destined to see 
a child not her own, although her hus- 
band's, heir to the throne, the Empress 
devotes her lonely and not too happy life 
to the actual, personal study of the wants 
of daughters of her people, and side by 
side with Jingu, 1 the majestic but shadowy 
Empress of the past, should be enshrined 
in the hearts of the women of Japan the 
memory of Haru Ko, the leader of her 
countrywomen into that freer and happier 
life that is opening to them. 

1 Jingu Kogo, like many of the heroic, half mythical 
figures of other nations, has suffered somewhat under the 
assaults of the modern historical criticism. Many of the 
hest Japanese historians deny that she conquered Corea ; 
some go so far as to doubt whether she had right to the 
title of Empress ; all are sure that much of romance has 
gathered about the figure of this brave woman ; but to 
the mass of the Japanese to-day, she is still an actual his- 
toric reality, and she represents to them in feminine form 
the Spirit of Japan. Whether she conquered Corea or 
no, she remains the prominent female figure upon the 
border line where the old barbaric life merges into the 
newer civilization, just as the present Empress, Haru Ko, 
stands upon the border line between the Eastern and the 
Western modes of thought and life. 



168 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

Each marks the beginning of a new era, 
— the first, of the era of civilization and 
morality founded upon the teachings of 
Buddha and Confucius ; the second, of the 
civilization and morality that have sprung 
from the teachings of Christ. Buddhism 
and Confucianism were elevating and civ- 
ilizing, but failed to place the women of 
Japan upon even as high a plane as they 
had occupied in the old barbaric times. To 
Christianity they must look for the security 
and happiness which it has never failed to 
give to the wives and mothers of all Chris- 
tian nations. 



CHAPTER VII. 

LIFE IN CASTLE AND TASHIKI. 1 

The seclusion of the Emperors and the 
gathering of the reins of government into 
the hands of Shoguns was a gradual pro- 
cess, beginning not long after the intro- 
duction of Chinese civilization, and con- 
tinuing to grow until Iyeyasu, the founder 
of the Tokugawa dynasty, through his code 
of laws, took from the Emperor the last 
vestige of real power, and perfected the 
feudal system which maintained the sway 

1 Yashiki, or spread-out house, was the name given to 
the palace and grounds of a daimio's city residence, and 
also to the barracks occupied by his retainers, both in 
city and country. In the city the barracks of the samurai 
were built as a hollow square, in the centre of which stood 
the palace and grounds of their lord, and this whole place 
was the daimio's yashiki. In the castle towns the daimio's 
palace and gardens stood within the castle inclosure, sur- 
rounded by a moat, while the yashiki s of the samurai were 
placed without the moat. They in turn were separated 
from the business part of the village sometimes by a 
second or third moat. By Kfe in castle and yashiki we 
mean the life of the daimio, whether in city or country. 



170 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

of his house for two hundred and fifty years 
of peace. 

The Emperor's court, with its literary 
and aesthetic quiet, its simplicity of life and 
complexity of etiquette, was the centre of 
the culture and art of Japan, but never 
the centre of luxury. After the growth of 
the Tokugawa power had secured for that 
house and its retainers great hereditary 
possessions, the Emperor's court was a 
mere shadow in the presence of the mag- 
nificence in which the Tokugawas and the 
daimios chose to live. The wealth of the 
country was in the hands of those who 
held the real power, and the Emperor 
was dependent for his support upon his 
great vassal, who held the land, collected 
the taxes, made the laws, and gave to his 
master whatever seemed necessary for his 
maintenance in the simple style of the old 
days, keeping for himself and for his re- 
tainers enough to make Yedo, the Toku- 
gawa capital, the centre of a luxury far 
surpassing anything ever seen at the Em- 
peror's own court. While the huge, the 
old imperial nobility, formerly the govern- 
ors of the provinces under the Emperors, 
lived in respectable but often extreme pov- 



LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIKI. 171 

erty at Kyoto, the landed nobility, or dai- 
mios, brought, after many struggles, under 
the sway of the Tokugawas, built for them- 
selves palaces and pleasure gardens in the 
moated city of Yedo. At Yedo with its cas- 
tle, its gardens, its yashikis, and its fortifi- 
cations, was established a new court, more 
luxurious, but less artistic and cultivated, 
than the old court of Kyoto. In the va- 
rious provinces, too, at every castle town, a 
little court arose about the castle, and the 
daimio became not only the feudal chief, 
but the patron of literature and art among 
his people, as the years went by filling his 
Jcura with choice works of art, in lacquer, 
bronze, silver, and pottery, to be brought 
out on special occasions. These nobles, 
under a law of Iyemitsu, the third of the 
Tokugawa line, were compelled to spend 
half of each year at the city of the Sho- 
guns ; and each had his yashiM, or large 
house and garden, in the city. At this 
house, his family must reside permanently, 
as hostages for the loyalty of their lord 
while away. The annual journeys to and 
from Yedo were events not only in the lives 
of the daimios and their trains of retainers, 
but in the lives of the country people who 



172 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

lived along" the roads by which they must 
travel. The time and style of each journey 
for each daimio were rigidly prescribed in 
the laws of Iyemitsu, as well as the be- 
havior of the country people who might 
meet the procession moving towards Yedo, 
or returning therefrom. When some noble, 
or any member of his family, was to pass 
through a certain section of the country, 
great preparations were made beforehand. 
Not only was traffic stopped along the 
route, but every door and window had to 
be closed. By no means was any one to 
show himself, or to look in any way upon 
the passing procession. To do so was to 
commit a profane deed, punishable by a 
fine. Among other things, no cooking was 
allowed on that day. All the food must be 
prepared the day before, as the air was 
supposed to become polluted by the smoke 
from the fires. Thus through crowded 
cities, full and busy with life, the daimio 
in his curtained palanquin, with numerous 
retinue, would pass by; but wherever he 
approached, the place would be as deserted 
and silent as if plague-stricken. It is 
hardly necessary to add that these jour- 
neys, attended with so much ceremony and 



LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIKL 173 

inconvenience to the people, were not as 
frequent as the trips now taken, at a mo- 
ment's notice, from one city to another, 
by these very same men. 

One story current in Tokyo shows the 
narrowing effect of such seclusion. A 
noble who had traveled into Yedo, across 
one of the large bridges built over the 
Sumida River, remarked one day to his 
companions that he was greatly disap- 
pointed on seeing that bridge. " From the 
pictures," he said, " which I have seen, the 
bridge seemed alive with people, the centre 
of life and activity, but the artists must ex- 
aggerate, for not a soul was on the bridge 
when I passed by." 

The castle of the Shogun in Yedo, with 
its moats and fortifications, and its fine 
house and great kura, was reproduced on a 
small scale in the castles scattered through 
the country ; and as in Yedo the yashihis 
of the daimios stood next to the inner 
moat of the castle, that the retainers might 
be ready to defend their lord at his earliest 
call, so in the provinces the yashihis of the 
samurai occupied a similar position about 
the daimio's castle. 

It is curious to see that, as the Shogun 



174 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

took away the military and temporal power 
of the Emperor, making of him only a 
figure -head without real power, so, to a 
certain degree, the daimio gave up, little by 
little, the personal control of his own prov- 
ince, the power falling into the hands of 
ambitious samurai, who became the coun- 
cilors of their lord. The samurai were 
the learned class and the military class ; 
they were and are the life of Japan ; and 
it is no wonder that the nobles, protected 
and shielded from the world, and growing 
up without much education, should have 
changed in the course of centuries from 
strong, brave warriors into the delicate, ef- 
feminate, luxury-loving nobles of the pres- 
ent day. Upon the loyalty and wisdom of 
the samurai, often upon some one man of 
undoubted ability, rested the greatness of 
the province and the prosperity of the mas- 
ter's house. 

The life of the ladies in these daimios' 
houses is still a living memory to many of 
the older women of Japan ; but it is a mem- 
ory only, and has given place to a different 
state of things. The Emperor occupies 
the castle of the Shogun to-day, and every 
daimio's castle throughout the country is 



LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIKI. 175 

in the hands of the imperial government. 
The old pleasure gardens of the nobles are 
turned into arsenals, schools, public parks, 
and other improvements of the new era. 
But here and there one finds some conserv- 
ative family of nobles still keeping up in 
some measure the customs of former times ; 
and daimios' houses there are still in Tokyo, 
though stripped of power and of retainers, 
where life goes on in many ways much as 
it did in the old days. In such a house as 
this, one finds ladies-in-waiting, of the sa- 
murai rank, who serve her ladyship — the 
daimio's wife — in all personal service. In 
the old days, the daughters of the samurai 
were eager for the training in etiquette, 
and in all that belongs to nice housekeep- 
ing, that might be obtained by a few years 
of apprenticeship in a daimio's house, and 
gladly assumed the most menial positions 
for the sake of the education and reputa- 
tion to be gained by such training. 

The wife and daughters of a daiinio led 
the quietest of lives, rarely passing beyond 
the four great walls that inclose the palace 
with its grounds. They saw the changes 
of the seasons in the flowers that bloomed 
in their lovely gardens, when, followed by 



176 JAPANESE GIELS AND WOMEN. 

numerous attendants, they slowly walked 
through the bamboo groves or under the 
bloom-laden boughs of the plum or cherry 
trees, forming their views of life, its pleas- 
ures, its responsibilities, and its meaning, 
within the narrow limits of the daimio's 
yashiki. 

Their mornings were passed in the 
adorning of their own persons, and in the 
elaborate dressing of their luxuriant hair ; 
the afternoons were spent in the tea cere- 
mony, in writing poetry, or the execution 
of a sort of silk mosaic that is a favorite 
variety of fancy work still among the ladies 
of Japan. 

A story is told of one of the Tokugawa 
princesses that illustrates the amusements 
of the Shogun's daughters, and the pains 
that were taken to gratify their wishes, 
however unreasonable. The cherry-trees 
of the castle gardens of Tokyo are noted 
for their beauty when in bloom during the 
month of April. It is said that once a 
daughter of the Tokugawa house expressed 
a wish to give a garden party amid the 
blossoming cherry-trees in the month 
of December, and nothing would do but 
that her wishes must be carried out. Her 



LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIEL 111 

retainers accordingly summoned to their 
aid skillful artificers, who from pink and 
white tissue paper produced myriads of 
cherry blossoms, so natural that they could 
hardly be distinguished from the real ones. 
These they fastened upon the trees in just 
such places as the real flowers would have 
chosen to occupy, and the happy princess 
gave her garden party in December under 
the pink mist of cherry blooms. 

The children of a daimio's wife occupied 
her attention but little. They were placed 
in the charge of careful attendants, and the 
mother, though allowed to see them when 
she wished, was deprived of the pleasure of 
constant intercourse with them, and had 
none of the mother's cares which form so 
large a part of life to an ordinary Japanese 
woman. 

When we know that the average Japa- 
nese girl is brought up strictly by her own 
mother, and thoroughly drilled in obedi- 
ence and in all that is proper as regards 
etiquette and the duties of woman, we can 
imagine the narrowness of the education 
of the daimio's poor little daughter, sur- 
rounded, from early childhood, with nu- 
merous attendants of the strictest sort, to 



178 JAPANESE GIELS AND WOMEN. 

teach her all that is proper according to 
the highest and severest standards. Some- 
times, by the whim or the indulgence of 
parents, or through exceptional circum- 
stances in her surroundings, a samurai's 
daughter became more independent, more 
self-reliant, or better educated, than oth- 
ers of her rank ; but such opportunities 
never came to the more carefully reared 
noble's daughter. 

From her earliest childhood, she was 
addressed in the politest and most formal 
way, so that she could not help acquir- 
ing polite manners and speech. She was 
taught etiquette above all things, so that 
no rude action or speech would disgrace 
her rank; and that she should give due 
reverence to her superiors, courtesy to 
equals, and polite condescension to inferi- 
ors. She was taught especially to show 
kindness to the families under the rule of 
her father, and was early told of the noble's 
duty to protect and love his retainers, as 
a father loves and protects his children. 
From childhood, presents were made in 
her name to those around her, often with- 
out her previous knowledge or permission, 
and from them she would receive profuse 



LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIEL 179 

thanks, — lessons in the delights of be- 
neficence which could not fail to make 
their impression on the child princess. 
Even to inferiors she used the polite lan- 
guage, 1 and never the rude, brusque speech 
of men, or the careless phrases and expres- 
sions of the lower classes. 

The education of the daimio's daughter 
was conducted entirely at home. 2 Instead 
of going out to masters for instruction, 
she was taught by some one in the house- 
hold, — one of her father's retainers, or 
perhaps a member of her own private reti- 
nue. Teachers for certain branches came 
from outside, and these were not expected 
to give the lesson within a certain time 
and hurry away, but they would remain, 

1 The Japanese language is full of expressions showing 
different shades of meaning in the politeness or respect 
implied. There are words and expressions which supe- 
riors in rank use to inferiors, or vice versa, and others used 
among equals. Some phrases helong especially to the 
language of the high-horn, just as there are common ex- 
pressions of the people. Some verbs in this extremely 
complex language must he altered in their termination 
according to the degree of honor in which the suhjeet of 
the action is held in the speaker's mind. 

2 The establishment of the peeress' school, mentioned 
in the last chapter, is a great innovation upon the old-time 
ways of many of the aristocratic families. 



180 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

conversing, sipping tea, and partaking of 
sweetmeats, until their noble pupil was 
ready to receive them. Hospitality re- 
quired that the teacher be offered a meal 
after the lesson, and this meal etiquette 
would not permit him to refuse, so that 
both teacher and pupil must spend much 
time waiting for each other and for the 
lesson. 

Pursued in this leisurely way, the edu- 
cation of the noble's daughter could not 
advance very rapidly, and it usually ended 
with an extremely early marriage ; and the 
girl wife would sometimes play with her 
doll in the new home until the living baby 
took its place to the young mother. 

The samurai women, who in one position 
or another were close attendants on these 
noble ladies, performing for them every 
act of service, were often women of more 
than average intelligence and education. 
From childhood to old age, the noble ladies 
were never without one or more of these 
maids of honor, close at hand to help or 
advise. Some entered the service in the 
lower positions for only a short period, 
leaving sooner or later to be married ; for 
continued service in a daimio's household 



LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIKI. 181 

meant a single life. Many of them re- 
mained in the palace all their days, leading 
lives of devotion to their mistress ; the 
comfort and ease of which hardly compen- 
sated for the endless formalities and the 
monotonous seclusion. 

Even the less responsible and more me- 
nial positions were not looked down upon, 
and the higher offices in the household 
were exceedingly honorable. When, once 
in a long while, a day's leave of absence 
was granted to one of these gentlewomen, 
and, loaded with presents sent by the dai- 
mio's lady, she went on her visit to her 
home, she was received as a greatly hon- 
ored member of her own family. The re- 
spect which was paid to her knowledge of 
etiquette and dress was never lessened 
because of the menial services she might 
have performed for those of noble blood. 

The lady who was the head attendant, 
and those in the higher positions, had a 
great deal of power and influence in mat- 
ters that concerned their mistress and the 
household ; just as the male retainers de- 
cided for the prince, and in their own 
way, many of the affairs of the province. 
The few conservative old ladies, the last 



182 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

relics of the numerous retainers that once 
filled the castle, who still remain faithful 
in attendance in the homes now deprived 
of the grandeur of the olden times, look 
with horror upon the innovations of the 
present day, and sigh for the glory of old 
Japan. It is only upon compulsion that 
they give up many of the now useless for- 
malities, and resign themselves to seeing 
their once so honored lords jostle elbow to 
elbow with the common citizen. 

I shall never forget the horror of one 
old lady, attendant on a noble's daughter 
of high rank, just entering the peeress' 
school, when it was told her that each stu- 
dent must carry in her own bundle of books 
and arrange them herself, and that the at- 
tendants were not allowed in the class- 
room. The poor old lady was doubtless 
indignant at the thought that her noble- 
born mistress should have to perform even 
so slight a task as the arranging of her 
own desk unaided. 

In the daimios' houses there was little 
of the culture or wit that graced the more 
aristocratic seclusion of Kyoto, and none 
of the duties and responsibilities that be- 
longed to the samurai women, so that the 



LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIEL 183 

life of the daimio's lady was perhaps more 
purposeless, and less stimulating to the 
noble qualities, than the lives of any other 
of the women of Japan. Surrounded by 
endless restrictions of etiquette, Jacking 
both the stimulus that comes from physical 
toil and that to be derived from intellect- 
ual exertion, the ladies of this class of the 
nobility simply vegetated. There is little 
wonder that the nobles degenerated both 
mentally and physically during the years 
when the Tokugawas held sway ; for there 
was absolutely nothing in the lives of the 
women to fit them to be the wives and 
mothers of strong men. Delicate, dainty, 
refined, dexterous in all manner of little 
things but helpless to act for themselves, 

— ladies to the inmost core of their beings, 
with instincts of honor and of noblesse oblige 
appearing in them from earliest childhood, 

— the years of seclusion, of deference from 
hundreds of retainers, of constant instruc- 
tion in the duties as well as the dignities 
of their position, have produced an abiding 
effect upon the minds of the women of this 
aristocracy, and to-day even the youngest 
and smallest of them have the virtues as 
well as the failings produced by nearly 



184 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

three centuries of training. They are lack- 
ing in force, in ambition, in clearness of 
thought, among a nation abounding in 
those qualities ; but the national charac- 
teristics of dignity, charming manners, 
a quick sense of honor, and indomitable 
pride of race and nation, combined with 
a personal modesty almost deprecating in 
its humility, — these are found among the 
daughters of the nobles developed to their 
highest extent. With the qualities of gen- 
tleness and delicacy possessed by these la- 
dies, which make them shrink from rough 
contact with the outer world, there are 
mingled the stronger qualities of bravery 
and physical courage. A daimio's wife, 
as befitted the wife of a warrior and the 
daughter of long generations of brave men, 
never shrank from facing danger and death 
when necessary; and considered the taking 
of her own life an honorable and easy es- 
cape from being captured by her enemy. 

Two or three little ripples from the past 
broke into my life in Tokyo, giving a little 
insight into those old feudal times, and the 
customs that were common then, but that 
are now gone forever. A story was told 
me in Japan by a lady who had herself, as 



LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIEI. 185 

a child, witnessed the events narrated. It 
illustrates the responsibility felt by the re- 
tainers for their lord and his house. A 
daimio fell into disgrace with the Shoguu, 
and was banished to his own capital, — 
a castle town several days' journey from 
Yedo, — as a punishment for some offense. 
The castle gates were closed, and no com- 
munication with the outer world allowed. 
During this period of disgrace, it happened 
that the noble fell ill, and died quite sud- 
denly before his punishment was ended. 
His death under such circumstances was 
the most terrible thing that could befall 
either himself or his family, as his funeral 
must be without the ordinary tokens of re- 
spect ; and his tombstone, instead of bear- 
ing tribute to his virtues, and the favor in 
which he had been held by his lord, must 
be simply the monument of his disgrace. 
This being the case, the retainers felt that 
these evils must be averted at any cost. 
Knowing that the Shogun's anger was 
probably not so great as to make him wish 
to bring eternal disgrace to their dead 
lord, they at once decided to send a mes- 
senger to the Shogun, begging for pardon 
on the plea of desperate illness, and ask- 



186 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

ing the restoration of his favor before the 
approach of death. The death was not 
announced, but the floor of the room in 
which the man had died was lifted up, and 
the body let down to the ground beneath ; 
and through all the town it was announced 
that the daimio was hopelessly ill. Forty 
days passed before the Shogun sent to the 
retainers the token that the disgrace was 
removed, and during all those forty days, 
in castle and barrack and village, the fic- 
tion of the daimio's illness was kept up. 
As soon as the messengers returned, the 
body was drawn up again through the floor 
and placed on the bed ; and all the re- 
tainers, from the least unto the greatest, 
were summoned into the room to congratu- 
late their master upon his restoration to 
favor. One by one they entered the dark- 
ened room, prostrated themselves before 
the corpse, and uttered the formal words 
of congratulation. Then when all, even to 
the little girl who, grown to womanhood, 
told me the story, had been through the 
horrible ceremony, it was announced that 
the master was dead, — that he had died 
immediately after the return of the mes- 
senger with the good tidings of pardon. 



LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIKI. 187 

All obstacles being thus removed, the fu- 
neral was celebrated with due pomp and 
circumstance ; and the tombstone of the 
daimio to-day gives no hint of the disgrace 
from which he so narrowly escaped. 

Another instance very similar, throwing 
some light on the custom of adoption or 
yoshii, referred to in a previous chapter, was 
the case of a nobleman who died without 
children, and without an heir appointed to 
inherit his title. It would never have done, 
in sending in the official notice of death, to 
be unable to name the legal head of the 
house and the successor to the title. There 
was also no male relative to perform the 
office of chief mourner at the funeral ; and 
so the death of the nobleman was kept 
secret, and his house showed no signs of 
mourning during a long period, until a 
son satisfactory to all the members of the 
household had been adopted. When the 
legal notice of the adoption had been sent 
in, and the son received into the family as 
heir, then, and only then, was the death of 
the lord announced, the period of mourn- 
ing begun, and the funeral ceremony per- 
formed. 

Upon one occasion I was visiting a Japa- 



188 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

nese lady, who knew the interest that I 
took in seeing and procuring' the old-fash- 
ioned embroidered kimonos, which are now 
entirely out of style in Japan, and which 
can only be obtained at second-hand cloth- 
ing stores, or at private sale. My friend 
said that she had just been shown an as- 
sortment of old garments which were of- 
fered at private sale by the heirs of a lady, 
recently deceased, who had once been a 
maid of honor in a daimio's house. The 
clothes were still in the house, and were 
brought in, in a great basket, for my in- 
spection. Very beautiful garments they 
were, of silk, crepe, and linen, embroidered 
elaborately, and in extremely good order. 
Many of them seemed not to have been 
worn at all, but had been kept folded away 
for years, and only brought out when a fit- 
ting occasion came round at the proper 
season of the year. As we turned over the 
beautiful fabrics, a black broadcloth gar- 
ment at the bottom of the basket aroused 
my curiosity, and I pulled it out and held 
it up for closer inspection. A curious gar- 
ment it was, bound with white, and with a 
great white crest applique on the middle of 
the back. Curious white stripes gave the 



LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIKI. 189 

coat a military look, and it seemed appro- 
priate rather to the wardrobe of some tvvo- 
sworded warrior than to that of a gentle- 
woman of the old type. To the question, 
How did such a coat come to be in such a 
place? the older lady of the company — ■ 
one to whom the old days were still the 
natural order and the new customs an ex- 
otic growth — explained that the garment 
rightfully belonged in the wardrobe of any 
lady-in-waiting in a daimio's house, for it 
was made to wear in case of fire or attack 
when the men were away, and the women 
were expected to guard the premises. Fur- 
ther search among the relics of the past 
brought to light the rest of the costume : 
silk hakama, or full kilted trousers ; a stiff, 
manlike black silk cap bound with a white 
baud; and a spear cover of broadcloth, with 
a great white crest upon it, like the one on 
the broadcloth coat. These made up the 
uniform which must be donned in time of 
need by the ladies of the palace or the 
castle, for the defense of their lord's prop- 
erty. They had been folded away for twenty 
years among the embroidered robes, to 
come to light at last for the purpose of 
showing to a foreigner a phase of the old 



190 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

life that was so much a matter of course to 
the older Japanese that it never occurred 
to them even to mention it to a stranger. 
The elder lady of the house was wonder- 
fully amused at my interest in these mute 
memorials of the past, and could never com- 
prehend why I was willing to expend the 
sum of one dollar for the sake of gaining 
possession of a set of garments for which I 
could have no possible use. The uniform 
had probably never been worn in actual 
warfare, but its owner had been trained 
in the use of the long-handled spear, the 
cover of which she had kept stored away 
all these years ; and had regarded herself 
as liable to be called into action at any 
time as one of the home guard, when the 
male retainers of her lord were in the field. 
There are in the shops of Tokyo to-day 
hundreds of colored prints illustrating the 
splendor of the Shogunate ; for the fine 
clothes, the pageants, the show and display 
that ended with the fall of the house of 
Tokugawa, are still dear to the popular 
mind. In these one sees reproduced, in 
more than their original brilliancy of color- 
ing, the daimios, with their trains of uni- 
formed retainers, proceeding in stately pa- 



LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASBIEI. 191 

geant to the palace of the Shogun ; the 
games, the dances, the reviews held before 
the Shogun himself; the princess, with her 
train of ladies and attendants, visiting the 
cherry blossoms at Uyeno, or crossing some 
swift but shallow river on her journey to 
Yedo. There one sees the fleet of red- 
lacquered pleasure barges in which the 
Shogun with his court sailed up the river 
to Mukojima, in the spring, to view the 
cherry-trees which bloom along the banks 
for miles. One sees, too, the interiors of 
the daimios' houses, the intimate domestic 
scenes into which no outsider could ever 
penetrate. One picture shows the excite- 
ments consequent upon the advent of an 
heir to a noble house, — the happy mother 
on her couch, surrounded by brightly 
dressed ladies-in-waiting ; the baby in the 
room adjoining; another group of brilliant 
beings preparing his bath ; while down the 
long piazza, which opens upon the little 
courtyard in the centre of the house, one 
sees still other groups of servants, bring- 
ing the gifts with which the great man- 
sion is flooded at such a time. Still further 
away, across the courtyard, are the doctors, 
holding learned consultation around a little 



192 JAPANESE* GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

table, and mixing medicines to secure the 
health and strength of both mother and 
baby. 

The fall of the Shogunate, and the abo- 
lition of castle and yashiki, have made a 
radical change in the fashions of dress in 
Japan. One sees no longer the beautiful 
embroidered robes, except upon the stage, 
for the abolition of the great leisure class 
has put the flowered kimono out of fashion. 
There are no courts, small and great, scat- 
tered all through the country, where the 
ladies must be dressed in changing styles 
for the changing seasons, and where the 
embroideries that imitate most closely the 
natural flowers are sure of a market. 
When one asks, as every foreigner is likely 
to ask, the Japanese ladies of one's ac- 
quaintance, " Why have you given up the 
beautiful embroideries and gorgeous col- 
ors that you used to wear?" the answer 
always is, " There are no daimios' houses 
now." And this is regarded as a sufficient 
explanation of the change. 

I have in my possession to-day two dainty 
bits of the silk mosaic work before men- 
tioned, the work of the sixteen-year-old 
wife of one of the proudest and most con- 



LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIEI. 193 

servative of the present generation of no' 
bles. A dainty little creature she was, 
with a face upon which her two years of 
wifehood and one year of motherhood had 
left no trace of care. Living amid lief 
host of ladies and women servants, most ot 
them older and wiser than herself; having 
no care and no amusements save the easy 
task of keeping herself pretty and well- 
dressed, and the amusement of watching 
her baby grow, and hearing the chance 
rumors that might come to her from the 
great new world into which her husband 
daily went, but with which she herself 
never mingled, — her days were one pleas- 
ant, monotonous round, unawakening alike 
either to soul or intellect. Into this life of 
remoteness from all that belongs to the 
new era, imagine the excitement produced 
by the advent of a foreign lady, with an 
educated dog, whose wonderful intelligence 
had been already related to her by one of 
her own ladies-in-waiting. I shall always 
believe that my invitation into that exclu- 
sive house was due largely to the reports 
of my dog, carried to its proprietors by one 
of the lady servitors who had seen him per- 
form upon one occasion. Certain it is that 



194 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

the first words of the little lady of the 
house to me were a question about the dog ; 
and her last act of politeness to our party 
was a warm embrace of the handsome 
collie, who had given unimpeachable evi- 
dence that he understood a great deal of 
English, — a tongue which the daimio him- 
self was painfully learning. The dainty 
child- wife with both arms buried in the 
heavy ruff of the astonished dog is a pic- 
ture that comes to me often, and that 
brings up most pathetically the monotony 
of an existence into which so small a thing 
can bring so much. The lifelike black and 
white silk puppy, the creeping baby doll 
from Kyoto, the silk mosaic box and chop- 
stick case, — the work of my lady's deli- 
cate fingers, — are most agreeable remind- 
ers of the kindness and sweetness of the 
little wife, whose sixteen summers have 
been spent among the surroundings of 
thirty years ago, and who lives, like the 
enchanted princess of the fairy tales, 
wrapped about by a spell which separates 
her from the bustling world of to-day. The 
product of the past, — the daughter of the 
last of the Shoguns, — she dwells in her 
enchanted house, among the relics of a 



LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIEL 195 

past which is still the present to her and 
to her household. So lovely, so aesthetic, 
so dainty and charming seems the world 
into which one enters there, that one 
would not care to break the spell that 
holds it as it is, and let the girl-wife, 
with her gentlewomen and her kneeling 
servants, hurry forward into the busy, 
perplexing life of to-day. May time deal 
gently with her and hers, nor rudely break 
the enchantment that surrounds her ! 



CHAPTER VIII. 



SAMURAI WOMEN. 



Samurai was the name given to the 
military class among the Japanese, — a 
class intermediate between the Emperor 
and his nobles and the great mass of the 
common people who were engaged in agri- 
culture, mechanical arts, or trade. Upon 
the samurai rested the defense of the 
country from enemies at home or abroad, 
as well as the preservation of literature 
and learning, and the conduct of all offi- 
cial business. At the time of the fall of 
feudalism, there were, among the thirty- 
four millions of Japanese, about two mil- 
lion samurai; and in this class, in the 
broadest sense of the word, must be in- 
cluded the daimios, as well as their two- 
sworded retainers. But as the greater 
among the samurai were distinguished by 
special class names, the word as commonly 
used, and as used throughout this work, 



SAMUBAI WOMEN. 197 

applies to the military class, who served 
the Shogun and the daimios, and who 
were supported by yearly allowances from 
the treasuries of their lords. These form 
a distinct class, actuated by motives quite 
different from those of the lower classes, 
and filling a great place in the history of 
the country. As the nobility, through long 
inheritance of power and wealth, became 
weak in body and mind, the samurai grew 
to be, more and more, not only the sword, 
but the brain of Japan ; and to-day the 
great work of bringing the country out of 
the middle ages into the nineteenth cen- 
tury is being performed by the samurai 
more than by any other class. 

What, it may be asked, are the traits of 
the samurai which distinguish them, and 
make them such honored types of the per- 
fect Japanese gentleman, so that to live and 
die worthy the name of samurai was the 
highest ambition of the soldier? The sa- 
murai's duty maybe expressed in one word, 
loyalty, — loyalty to his lord and master, and 
loyalty to his country, — loyalty so true and 
deep that for it all human ties, hopes, and 
affections, wife, children, and home, must 
be sacrificed if necessary. Those who have 



198 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

read the tale of "The Loyal Ronins" 1 — 
a story which has been so well told by Mit- 
ford, Dickens, and Greey that many read- 
ers must be already familiar with it — will 
remember that the head councilor and 
retainer, Oishi, in his deep desire for re- 
venge for his lord's unjust death, divorces 
his wife and sends off his children, that they 
may not distract his thoughts from his 
plans ; and performs his famous act of re- 
venge without once seeing his wife, only 
letting her know at his death his faithful- 
ness to her and the true cause of his seem- 
ing cruelty. And the wife, far from feel- 
ing wronged by such an act, only glories in 
the loyalty of her husband, who threw aside 
everything to fulfill his one great duty, 
even though she herself was his unhappy 
victim. 

The true samurai is always brave, never 
fearing death or suffering in any form. 
Life and death are alike to him, if no dis- 
grace is attached to his name. 

An incident comes into my mind which 

1 Ronin was the term applied to a samurai who had 
lost his master, and owed no feudal allegiance to any 
daimio. The exact meaning of the word is wave-man, 
signifying one who wanders to and fro without purpose, 
like a wave driven by the wind. 



SAMURAI WOMEN. 199 

may serve as an example of the samurai 
spirit, — a spirit which has filled the his- 
tory of Japan with heroic deeds. It is the 
story of a long siege, at the end of which 
the little garrison in the besieged castle 
was reduced to the last stages of endur- 
ance, though hourly expecting reinforce- 
ment. In this state of affairs, the great 
question is, whether to wait for the ex- 
pected aid, or to surrender immediately, 
and the answer to the question can only 
be obtained through a knowledge of the 
enemy's strength. At this juncture, one 
of the samurai volunteers to steal into the 
camp of the besiegers, inspect their forces, 
and report their strength before the final 
decision is made. He disguises himself, 
and through various chances is able to 
penetrate, unsuspected, into the midst of 
the enemy's camp. He discovers that the 
besiegers are so weak that they cannot 
maintain the siege much longer, but while 
returning to the castle he is recognized 
and taken by the enemy. His captors give 
him one chance for escape from the horri- 
ble death of crucifixion. He is to go to 
the edge of the moat, and, standing on an 
elevated place, shout out to the soldiers 



200 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

that they must surrender, for the forces are 
too strong for them. He seemingly con- 
sents to this, and, led down to the water's 
edge, he sees across the moat his wife and 
child, who greet him with demonstrations 
of joy. To her he waves his hand ; then, 
bravely and loudly, so that it may be heard 
by friend and foe, he shouts out the true 
tidings, " Wait for reinforcement at any 
cost, for the besiegers are weak and will 
soon have to give up. 5 ' At these words 
his enraged enemies seize him and put 
him to a death of horrible torture, but he 
smiles in their faces as he tells them the 
sweetness of such a sacrifice for his mas- 
ter. Japanese history abounds with heroic 
deeds of blood displaying the indomitable 
courage of the samurai. In the reading of 
them, we are often reminded of the Spar- 
tan spirit of warfare, and samurai women 
are in some ways very like those Spartan 
mothers who would rather die than see 
their sons branded as cowards. 

The implicit obedience which samurai 
gave their lords, when conflicting with 
feelings of loyalty to their country, often 
produced two opposing forces which had 
to be overcome. When the daimio gave 



SAMURAI WOMEN. 201 

orders that the keener-sighted retainer felt 
would not he for the good of the house, 
he had either to disobey his lord, or act 
against his feeling of loyalty. Divided be- 
tween the two duties, the samurai would 
usually do as he thought right for his 
country or his lord, disobeying his mas- 
ter's orders ; write a confession of his real 
motives ; and save his name from disgrace 
by committing suicide. By this act he 
would atone for his disobedience, and his 
loyalty would never be questioned. 

The now abolished custom of hara-kiri, 
or the voluntary taking of one's life to 
avoid disgrace, and blot out entirely or 
partially the stain on an honorable name, 
is a curious custom which has come down 
from old times. The ancient heroes stabbed 
themselves as calmly as they did their ene- 
mies, and women as well as men knew 
how to use the short sword 1 worn always 

1 The samurai always wore two swords, a long- one for 
fighting- only, and a short one for defense when possible, 
but, as a last resort, for hara-kiri. The sword is the em- 
blem of the samurai spirit, and as such is respected and 
honored. A samurai took pride in keeping his swords as 
sharp and shining as was possible. He was never seen 
without the two swords, but the longer one he removed 
and left at the front door when he entered the house of a 
friend. To use a sword badly, to harm or injure it, or to 
step over it, was considered an insult to the owner. 



202 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

at the side of the samurai, his last and 
easy escape from shameful death. 

The young men of this class, as well as 
their masters, the daimios, were early in- 
structed in the method of this self-stab- 
bing, so that it might be cleanly and eas- 
ily done, for a bloody and unseemly death 
would not redound to the honor of the 
suicide. The fatal cut was not instanta- 
neous in its effect, and there was always 
opportunity for that display of courage 
— that show of disregard for death or 
pain — which was expected of the brave 
man. 

The hara-ldri was of course a last resort, 
but it was an honorable death. The vulgar 
criminal must be put to death by the hands 
of others, but the nobler samurai, who 
never cares to survive disgrace, was con- 
demned to hara-kiri if found guilty of ac- 
tions worthy of death. Not to be allowed 
to do this, but to be executed in the com- 
mon way, was a double disgrace to a samu- 
rai. Even to this day, when crimes such 
as the assassination of a minister of state 
are committed, in the mistaken belief that 
the act is for the good of the country, the 
idea on the part of the assassin is never to 



SAMURAI WOMEN. 203 

escape detection. He calmly gives himself 
up to justice or takes his own life, 1 stating 
his motive for the deed; and, believing 
himself justified in the act, is willing that 
his life should be the cost. 

The old samurai was proud of his rank, 
his honorable vocation, his responsibility ; 
proud of his ignorance of trade and barter 
and of his disregard for the sordid cares of 
the world, regarding as far beneath him all 
occupations but those of arms. Wealth, 
as artisan or farmer, rarely tempted him 
to sink into the lower ranks ; and his sup- 
port from the daimio, often a mere pit- 
tance, insured to him more respect and 
greater privileges than wealth as a heimin. 
To this day even, this feeling exists. Pref- 
erence for rank or position, rather than 
for mere salary, remains strongly among 
the present generation, so that official posi- 
tions are more sought after than the more 
lucrative occupations of trade. Japan 

1 Kurushima, who attempted to take the life of Okuma, 
the late Minister of Foreign Affairs, as recently as 1889, 
committed suicide immediately after throwing the dyna- 
mite bomb which caused the minister the loss of his leg. 
This was the more remarkable in that, at the time of his 
death, the assassin supposed that his victim had escaped 
all injury. 



204 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

is flooded with small officials, and yet the 
samurai now is obliged to lay down his 
sword and devote his time to the once 
despised trades, and to learn how impor- 
tant are the arts of peace compared with 
those of war. 

The dislike of anything' suggestive of 
trade or barter — of services and actions 
springing, not from duty and from the 
heart, but from the desire of gain — has 
strongly tinted many little customs of the 
day, often misunderstood and misconstrued 
by foreigners. In old Japan, experience 
and knowledge could not be bought and 
sold. Physicians did not charge for their 
services, but on the contrary would decline 
to name or even receive a compensation 
from those in their own clan. Patients, 
on their side, were too proud to accept 
services free, and would send to the phy- 
sicians, not as pay exactly, but more as 
a gift or a token of gratitude, a sum 
of money which varied according to the 
means of the giver, as well as to the 
amount of service received. Daimios did 
not send to ask a teacher how much an 
hour his time was worth, and then arrange 
the lessons accordingly ; the teacher was 



SAMURAI WOMEN. 205 

not insulted by being expected to barter 
his knowledge for so much filthy lucre, 
but was merely asked whether his time 
and convenience would allow of his taking 
extra teaching. The request was made, 
not as a matter of give and take, but a 
favor to be granted. Due compensation, 
however, would never fail to be made, — of 
this the teacher could be sure, — but no 
agreement was ever considered necessary. 

With this feeling yet remaining in Ja- 
pan, — this dislike of contracts, and exact 
charges for professional services, — we can 
imagine the inward disgust of the samurai 
at the business-like habits of the foreign- 
ers with whom he has to deal. On the 
other hand, his feelings are not appreciated 
by the foreigner, and his actions clash with 
the European and American ideas of in- 
dependence and self-respect. In Japan a 
present of money is more honorable than 
pay, whereas in America pay is much more 
honorable than a present. 

The samurai of to-day is rapidly imbib- 
ing new ideas, and is learning to see the 
world from a Western point of view; but 
his thoughts and actions are still moulded 
on the ideas of old Japan, and it will be a 



206 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

long* time before the loyal, faithful, but 
proud spirit of the samurai will die out. 
The pride of clau is now changed to pride 
of race ; loyalty to feudal chief has become 
loyalty to the Emperor as sovereign ; and 
the old traits of character exist under the 
European costumes of to-day, as under 
the flowing robes of the two-sword ed re- 
tainer. 

It is this same spirit of loyalty that 
has made it hard for Christianity to get a 
foothold in Japan. The Emperor was the 
representative of the gods of Japan. To 
embrace a new religion seemed a desertion 
of him, and the following of the strange 
gods of the foreigner. The work of the 
Catholic missionaries which ended so dis- 
astrously in 1637 has left the impression 
that a Christian is bound to offer alle- 
giance to the Pope in much the same 
way as the Emperor now receives it from 
his people ; and the bitterness of such 
a thought has made many refuse to hear 
what Christianity really is. Such words as 
" King " and " Lord " they have understood 
as referring to temporal things, and it 
has taken years to undo this prejudice ; a 
feeling in no way surprising when we 



SAMURAI WOMEN. 207 

consider how the Jesuit missionaries once 
interfered with political movements in 
Japan . 

So bitter was this feeling*, when Japan 
was first opened, that a native Christian 
was at once branded as a traitor to his 
country, and very severe was the persecu- 
tion against all Christians. Missionaries 
at one time dared not acknowledge them- 
selves as such, and lived in danger of their 
lives ; and the Japanese Christian who re- 
mained faithful did so knowing" that he 
was despised and hated. I know of one 
mother who, finding command and en- 
treaty alike unavailing to move her son, a 
convert to the new religion, threatened to 
commit suicide, feeling that the disgrace 
which had fallen on the family could only 
be wiped out with her death. Happily, all 
this is of the past, and to-day the samurai 
has found that he can reconcile the new 
religion with his loyalty to Japan, and that 
in receiving the one he is not led to betray 
the other. 

The women of the samurai have shared 
with the men the responsibilities of their 
rank, and the pride that comes from he- 
reditary positions of responsibility. A wo- 



208 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

man's first duty in all ranks of society is 
obedience ; but sacrifice of self, in however 
horrible a way, was a duty most cheerfully 
and willingly performed, when by such sac- 
rifice father, husband, or son might be 
the better able to fulfill his duty towards 
his feudal superior. The women in the 
daimios' castles who were taught fencing, 
drilled and uniformed, and relied upon 
to defend the castle in case of need, were 
women of this class, — women whose hus- 
bands and fathers were soldiers, and in 
whose veins ran the blood of generations 
of fighting ancestors. Gentle, feminine, 
delicate as they were, there was a possibil- 
ity of martial prowess about them when 
the need for it came; and the long edu- 
cation in obedience and loyalty did not 
fail to produce the desired results. Death, 
and ignominy worse than death, could be 
met bravely, but disgrace involving loss of 
honor to husband or feudal lord was the 
one thing that must be avoided at all haz- 
ards. It was my good fortune, many years 
ago, to make the acquaintance of a little 
Japanese girl who had lived in the midst 
of the siege of Wakamatsu, the city in 
which the Shogun's forces made their last 



SAMURAI WOMEN. 209 

stand for their lord and the system that 
he represented. As the Emperor's forces 
marched upon the castle town, moat after 
moat was taken, until at last men, women, 
and children took refuge within the citadel 
itself to defend it until the last gasp. The 
bombs of the besiegers fell crashing into 
the castle precincts, killing the women as 
they worked at whatever they could do in 
aid of the defenders ; and even the little 
girls ran back and forth, amid the rain of 
bullets and balls, carrying cartridges, which 
the women were making within the castle, 
to the men who were defending the walls. 
" Were n't you afraid ? " we asked the deli- 
cate child, when she told us of her own share 
in the defense. " No," was the answer. A 
small but dangerous sword, of the finest 
Japanese steel, was shown us as the sword 
that she wore in her belt during all those 
days of war and tumult. " Why did you 
wear the sword ? " we asked. " So that I 
would have it if I was taken prisoner." 
" What would you have done with it P " was 
the next question, for we could not believe 
that a child of eight would undertake to 
defend herself against armed soldiers with 
that little sword. "I w 7 ould have killed 



210 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

myself," was the answer, with a flash of 
the eye that showed her quite capable of 
committing the act in case of need. 

In the olden times, when the spirit of 
warfare was strong and justice but scantily 
administered, revenge for personal insult, 
or for the death of father or lord, fell upon 
the children, or the retainers. Sometimes 
the bloody deed has fallen to the lot of a 
woman, to some weak and feeble girl, who, 
in many a tale, has braved all the difficul- 
ties that beset a woman's path, devoted her 
life to an act of vengeance, and, with the 
courage of a man, has often successfully 
consummated her revenge. 

One of the tales of old Japan, and a fa- 
vorite subject of theatrical representation, 
is the death and revenge of a lady in a dai- 
mio's palace. Onoye, a daughter of the 
people, child of a merchant, has by chance 
risen to the position of lady-in-waiting to a 
daimio's wife, — a thing so uncommon that 
it has roused the jealousy of the other 
ladies, who are of the samurai class. Iwa- 
fuji, one of the highest and proudest ladies 
at the court, takes pains on every occa- 
sion to insult and torment the poor, unof- 
fendiug Onoye, whom she cannot bear to 



SAMUEAI WOMEN. 211 

have as an associate. She constantly re- 
minds her of her inferior birth, and at last 
challenges her to a trial in fencing 1 , in 
which accomplishment Onoye is not pro- 
ficient, having lacked the proper training 
in her early life. At last the hatred and 
anger of Ivvafuji culminate in a frenzy of 
rage ; she forgets herself, and strikes the 
meek and gentle Onoye with her sandal, 
— the worst insult that could be offered to 
any one. 

Onoye", overcome by this deep disgrace of- 
fered her in public, returns from the main 
palace to her own apartments, and ponders 
long and deeply, in the bitterness of her 
soul, how to wipe out the disgrace of an 
insult by such an enemy. 

Her own faithful maid, seeing her dis- 
ordered hair and anxious looks, perceives 
some secret trouble, which her mistress 
will not disclose, and tries, while perform- 
ing her acts of service, to dispel the gloom 
by telling gayly all the gossip of the day. 
This maid, Haru, is a type of the clever 
faithful servant. She is really of higher 
birth than her mistress, for, though she 
has been obliged to go out to service, she 
was born of a samurai family. Onoye*, 



212 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

while listening' to the talk of her servant, 
has made up her mind that only one thing 
can blot out her disgrace, and that is to 
commit suicide. She hastily pens a fare- 
well to her family, for the deed must not 
be delayed, and sends with the letter the 
token of her disgrace, — Iwafuji's sandal, 
which she has kept. O Haru is sent on 
this errand, and, unconscious of the ill- 
news she is bearing, she starts out. On 
the way, the ominous croak of the ravens, 
who are making a dismal noise, — a pre- 
sage of ill-luck, — frightens the observant 
O Haru. A little further on, the strap 
of her clog- breaks, — a still more alarm- 
ing sign. Thoroughly frightened, Haru 
turns back, and reaches her mistress' room 
ill time to find that the fatal deed is done, 
and her mistress is dying. Haru is 
heart-broken, learns the whole truth, and 
vows vengeance on the enemy of her loved 
mistress. 

O Haru, unlike Onoye, is thoroughly 
trained in fencing. An occasion arises 
when she returns to Iwafuji in public the 
malicious blow, and with the same sandal, 
which she has kept as a sign of her re- 
venge. She then challenges Iwafuji, in 



SAMURAI WOMEJt. 213 

behalf of the dead, to a trial in fencing. 
The haughty Iwafuji is forced to accept, 
and is thoroughly defeated and shamed 
before the spectators. The whole truth is 
now made known, and the daimio, who ad- 
mires and appreciates the spirit of Haru, 
sends for her, and raises her from her low 
position to fill the post of her dead mis- 
tress. 

These stories show the spirit of the 
samurai women ; they can suffer death 
bravely, even joyfully, at their own hands 
or the hands of husband or father, to avoid 
or wipe out any disgrace which they re- 
gard as a loss of honor; but they will as 
bravely and patiently subject themselves to 
a life of shame and ignominy, worse than 
death, for the sake of gaining for husbaud 
or father the means of carrying out a feudal 
obligation. There is a pathetic scene, in 
one of the most famous of the Japanese his- 
torical dramas, in which one seems to get 
the moral perspective of the ideal Japanese 
woman, as one cannot get it in any other 
way. The play is founded on the story of 
" The Loyal Ronins," referred to in the be- 
ginning of this chapter. The loyal ronins 
are plotting to avenge the death of their 



214 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

master upon the daimio whose cupidity 
and injustice have brought it about. As 
there is danger of disloyalty even in their 
own ranks, Oishi, the leader of the dead 
daimio's retainers, displays great caution 
in the selection of his fellow-conspirators, 
and practices every artifice to secure ab- 
solute secrecy for his plans. One young 
man, who was in disgrace with his lord at 
the time of his death, applies to be ad- 
mitted within the circle of conspirators; 
but as it is suspected that he may not be 
true to the cause, a payment in money is 
exacted from him as a pledge of his honor- 
able intentions. It is thus made his first 
duty to redeem his honor from all suspicion 
by the payment of the money, in order 
that he may perform his feudal obligation 
of avenging the death of his lord. But the 
young man is poor; he has married a poor 
girl, and has agreed to support not only his 
wife, but her old parents as well, and the 
payment is impossible for him. In this 
emergency, his wife, at the suggestion of 
her parents, proposes, as the only way, to 
sell herself, for a term of two years, to 
the proprietor of a house of pleasure, that 
she may by this vile servitude enable her 



SAMUBAI WOMEN. 215 

husband to escape the dishonor that must 
come to him if he fails to fulfill his feu- 
dal duty. Negotiations are entered into, 
the contract is made, and an advance pay- 
ment is given which will furnish money 
enough for the pledge required by the con- 
spirators. All this is done without the 
knowledge of the husband, lest his love 
for his wife and his grief for the sacri- 
fice prevent him from accepting the only 
means left to prove his loyalty. The noble 
wife even plans to leave her home while 
he is away on a hunting expedition, and 
so spare him the pain of parting. His 
emotion upon learning of this venture in 
business is not of wrath at the disgrace 
that has overtaken his family, but simply 
of grief that his wife and her parents must 
make so great a sacrifice to save his honor. 
It is a terrible affliction, but it is not a dis- 
grace in any way parallel to the disgrace 
of disloyalty to his lord. And the heroic 
wife, when the men come to carry her away, 
is upheld through all the trying farewells 
by the consciousness that she is making as 
noble a sacrifice of herself as did the wife 
of Yamato Dake when she leaped into the 
sea to avert the wrath of the sea-god from 



216 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

her husband. The Japanese, both men 
and women, knowing this story and many 
others similar in character, can see, as we 
cannot from our point of view, that, even if 
the body be defiled, there is no defilement 
of the soul, for the woman is fulfilling* her 
highest duty in sacrificing all, even her 
dearest possession, for the honor of her 
husband. It is a climax of self-abnegation 
that brings nothing but honor to the soul 
of her who reaches it. Japanese women 
who read this story feel profound pity for 
the poor wife, and a horror of a sacrifice 
that binds her to a life which outwardly, 
to the Japanese mind even, is the lowest 
depth a woman ever reaches. But they do 
not despise her for the act ; nor would they 
refuse to receive her even were she to ap- 
pear in living form to-day in any Japanese 
home, where, thanks to happier fortunes, 
such sacrifices are not demanded. Just 
at this point is the difference of moral 
perspective that foreigners visiting Japan 
find so hard to understand, and that leads 
many, who have lived in the country the 
longest, to believe that there is no modesty 
and purity among Japanese women. It is 
this that makes it possible for the vilest 



SAMURAI WOMEN. 217 

of stories, and those that have the least 
foundation in fact, to fiud easy belief among 
foreigners, even if they be told about the 
purest, most high-minded, and most honor- 
able of Japanese women. Our maidens, as 
they grow to womanhood, are taught that 
anything is better than personal dishonor, 
and their maidenly instincts side with the 
teaching. With us, a virtuous woman does 
not mean a brave, a heroic, an unselfish, or 
self-sacrificing woman, but means simply 
one who keeps herself from personal dis- 
honor. Chastity is the supreme virtue for 
a woman ; all other virtues are secondary 
compared with it. This is our point of 
view, and the whole perspective is arranged 
with that virtue in the foreground. Dis- 
miss this for a moment, aud consider the 
moral training of the Japanese maiden. 
From earliest youth until she reaches ma- 
turity, she is constantly taught that obedi- 
ence and loyalty are the supreme virtues, 
which must be preserved even at the sacri- 
fice of all other and lesser virtues. She is 
told that for the good of father or husband 
she must be willing to meet any danger, 
endure any dishonor, perpetrate any crime, 
give up any treasure. She must consider 



218 JAPANESE GIELS AND WOMEN. 

that nothing' belonging solely to herself is 
of any importance compared with the good 
of her master, her family, or her country. 
Place this thought of obedience and loyalty, 
to the point of absolute self-abnegation, in 
the foreground, and your perspective is al- 
tered, the other virtues occupying places of 
varying importance. Because a Japanese 
woman will sometimes sacrifice her personal 
virtue for the sake of father or husband, 
does it follow that all Japanese women are 
unchaste and impure? In many cases this 
sacrifice is the noblest that she believes 
possible, and she goes to it, as she would 
go to death in any dreadful form, for those 
whom she loves, and to whom she owes the 
duty of obedience. The Japanese maiden 
grows to womanhood no less pure and 
modest than our own girls, but our girls 
are never called upon to sacrifice their mod- 
esty for the sake of those whom they love 
best ; nor is it expected of any woman in 
this country that she exist solely for the 
good of some one else, in whatever way he 
chooses to use her, during all the years of 
her life. Let us take this difference into 
our thought in forming our judgment, and 
let us rather seek the causes that underlie 



SAMURAI WOMEN. 219 

the actions than pass judgment upon the 
actions themselves. From a close study of 
the characters of many Japanese women 
and girls, I am quite convinced that few 
women in any country do their duty, as 
they see it, more nohly, more single-mind- 
edly, and more satisfactorily to those about 
them, than the women of Japan. 

Many argue that the purity of Japanese 
women, as compared with the men, the 
ready obedience which they yield, their 
sweet characters and unselfish devotiou as 
wives and mothers, are merely the results 
of the restraint under which they live, 
and that they are too weak to be allowed 
to enjoy freedom of thought and action. 
Whether this be true or no is a point 
which we leave for others to take up, as 
time shall have provided new data for rea- 
soning on the subject. 

To me, the sense of duty seems to be 
strongly developed in the Japanese wo- 
men, especially in those of the samurai 
class. Conscience seems as active, though 
often in a different manner, as the old-fash- 
ioned New England conscience, transmitted 
through the bluest of Puritan blood. And 
when a duty has once been recognized as 



220 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

such, no timidity, or mortification, or fear 
of ridicule will prevent the performance 
of it. A case comes to my mind now of 
a young girl of sixteen, who made public 
confession before her schoolmates of short- 
comings of which none of them knew, for 
the sake of easing her troubled conscience 
and warning her schoolmates against simi- 
lar errors. The circumstances were as fol- 
lows : The young girl had recently lost her 
grandmother, a most loving and affection- 
ate old lady, who had taken the place of 
a mother to the child from her earliest 
infancy. In a somewhat unhappy home, 
the love of the old grandmother was the 
one bright spot ; and when she was taken 
away, the poor, lonely child's memory re- 
called all of her own shortcomings to this 
beloved friend; and, too late to make amend- 
ment to the old lady herself, she dwelt 
on her own undutifulness, and decided that 
she must by some means do penance, or 
make atonement for her fault. She might, 
if she made a confession before her school- 
mates, warn them against similar mistakes ; 
and accordingly she prepared, for the liter- 
ary society in which the girls took what 
part they chose, a long confession, written 



SAMURAI WOMEN. 221 

ill poetical style, and read it before her 
schoolmates and teachers. It was a ter- 
rible ordeal, as one could see by the blush- 
ing face and breaking voice, often choked 
with sobs ; and when at the conclusion she 
urged her friends to behave in such a way 
to their dear ones that they need never 
suffer what she had had to endure since 
her grandmother's death, there was not a 
dry eye in the room, and many of the girls 
were sobbing aloud. It was a curious ex- 
piation and a touching one, but one not in 
the least exceptional or uncharacteristic of 
the spirit of duty that actuates the best 
women of the samurai class. 

Here is another instance which illus- 
trates this sense of duty, and desire of 
atoning for past mistakes or sins. At the 
time of the overthrow of the feudal sys- 
tem, the samurai, bred to loyalty to their 
own feudal superiors as their highest duty, 
found themselves ranged on different sides 
in the struggle, according to the positions 
in which their lords placed themselves. At 
the end of the struggle, those who had 
followed their daimios to the field, in de- 
fense of the Shogunate, found that they 
had been fighting against the Emperor, the 



222 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

Son of Heaven himself, who had at last 
emerged from the seclusion of ceuturies to 
govern his own empire. Thus the sup- 
porters of the Shogunate, while absolutely 
loyal to their daimios, had been disloyal to 
the higher power of the Emperor; and 
had put themselves in the position of trai- 
tors to their country. There was a conflict 
of principles there somewhat similar to 
that which took place in our Civil War, 
when, in the South, he who was true to his 
State became a traitor to his country, and 
he who was true to his country became 
a traitor to his State. Two ladies of the 
finest samurai type had, with absolute loy- 
alty to a lost cause, aided by every means 
in their power in the defense of the city of 
Wakamatsu against the victorious forces 
of the Emperor. They had held on to the 
bitter end, and had been banished, with 
others of their family and clan, to a remote 
province, for some years after the end of 
the war. In 1877, eleven years after the 
close of the War of the Restoration, a re- 
bellion broke out in the south which re- 
quired a considerable expenditure of blood 
and money for its suppression. When the 
new war began, these two ladies presented 



SAMUBAI WOMEN. 223 

a petition to the government, in which 
they begged that they might be allowed to 
make amends for their former position of 
opposition to the Emperor, by going with 
the army to the field as hospital nurses. 
At that time, no lady in Japan had ever 
gone to the front to nurse the wounded 
soldiers; but to those two brave women 
was granted the privilege of making atone- 
ment for past disloyalty, by the exercise of 
the skill and nerve that they had gained in 
their experience of war against the Em- 
peror, in the nursing of soldiers wounded 
in his defense. 

In the old days, the women of the samu- 
rai class fulfilled most nobly the duties 
that fell to their lot. As wives and mo- 
thers in time of peace, they performed their 
work faithfully in the quiet of their homes ; 
and, their time filled with household cares, 
they busied themselves with the smaller 
duties of life. As the wives and mothers 
of soldiers, they cultivated the heroic spirit 
befitting their position, fearing no dan- 
ger save such as involved disgrace. As the 
home-guard in time of need, they stood 
ready to defend their master's possessions 
with their own lives ; as gentlewomen and 



224 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

ladies-in-waiting at the court of the dai- 
mio or the Shognn, they cultivated the arts 
and accomplishments required for their 
position, and veiled the martial spirit that 
dwelt within them under an exterior as 
feminine, as gracious, as cultivated and 
charming, as that of any ladies of Europe 
or America. To-day in the new Japan, 
where the samurai have no longer their 
yearly allowance from their lords and their 
feudal duties, but, scattered through the 
whole nation, are engaged in all the arts 
and trades, and are infusing the old spirit 
into the new life, what are the women 
doing ? As the government of the laud 
to-day lies in the hands of the samurai 
men under the Emperor, so the progress 
of the women, the new ideas of work for 
women, are in the hands of the samurai 
women, led by the Empress. Wherever 
there is progress among the women, wher- 
ever they are looking about for new 7 oppor- 
tunities, entering new occupations, elevat- 
ing the home, opening hospitals, indus- 
trial schools, asylums, there you will find 
the leading spirits always of the samurai 
class. In the recent changes, some of this 
class have risen above their former state 



SAMUEAI WOMEN. 225 

and joined the ranks of the nobility ; and 
there the presence of the samurai spirit in- 
fuses new life into the aristocracy. So, too, 
the changes that have raised some have 
lowered others, and the samurai is now to 
be found in the formerly despised occupa- 
tions of trade and industry, among" the 
merchants, the farmers, the fishermen, the 
artisans, and the domestic servants. But 
wherever his lot is cast, the old training, 
the old ideals, the old pride of family, still 
keep him separate from his present rank, 
and, instead of pulling him down to the 
level of those about him, tend to raise that 
level by the example of honor and intelli- 
gence that he sets. The changed fortunes 
were not met without a murmur. Most of 
the outrages, the reactionary movements, 
the riots and inflammatory speeches and 
writings, that characterized the long period 
of disquiet following the Restoration, came 
from men of this class, who saw their sup- 
port taken from them, leaving them un- 
able to dig aud ashamed to beg. But the 
greater part of them went sturdily to work, 
in government positions if they could get 
them, in the army, on the police force, on 
the farm, in the shop, at trades, at service, 



226 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

— even to the humble work of wheeling a 
jinrikisha, if other honest occupation could 
not be found ; and the women shared pa- 
tiently and bravely the changed fortunes of 
the men, doing whatever they could toward 
bettering them. The samurai women to- 
day are eagerly working into the positions 
of teachers, interpreters, trained nurses, 
and whatever other places there are which 
may be honorably occupied by women. The 
girls' schools, both government and pri- 
vate, find many of their pupils among the 
samurai class ; and their deference and 
obedience to their teachers and superiors, 
their ambition and keen sense of honor in 
the school-room, show the influence of the 
samurai feeling over new Japan. To the 
samurai women belongs the task — and 
they have already begun to perform it — 
of establishing upon a broader and surer 
foundation the position of women in their 
own country. They, as the most intel- 
ligent, will be the first to perceive the 
remedy for present evils, and will, if I 
mistake not, move heaven and earth, at 
some time in the near future, to have that 
remedy applied to their own case. Most of 
them read the literature of the day, some 



SAMURAI WOMEN. 227 

of them ill at least one language beside 
their own ; a few have had the benefit of 
travel abroad, and have seen what the home 
and the family are in Christian lands. 
There is as much of the unconquerable 
spirit of the samurai to-day in the women 
as in the men ; and it will not be very long* 
before that spirit will begin to show itself 
in working for the establishment of their 
homes and families upon some stronger 
basis than the will of the husband and 
father. 



CHAPTER IX. 

PEASANT WOMEN. 

The great heimin class includes not 
only the peasants of Japan, but also the 
artisans and merchants ; artisans ranking" 
below farmers, and merchants below arti- 
sans, in the social structure. It includes 
the whole of the common people, except 
such as were in former times altogether 
below the level of respectability, the eta 
and hinin, 1 — outcasts who lived by beg- 
ging, slaughtering animals, caring for dead 
bodies, tanning skins, and other employ- 
ments which rendered them unclean ac- 
cording to the old notions. From very 
early times the agricultural class has been 
sharply divided from the samurai or mili- 

1 The laws against the 6ta and hinin, making 1 of them 
a distinct, unclean class, and forbidding- their intermar- 
riage with any of the higher classes, have recently been 
abolished. There is now no rank distinction of any 
practical value, except that between noble and common 
people. Heimin and samurai are now indiscriminately 
mingled. 



PEASANT WOMEN. 229 

tary. Here and there one from the peas- 
antry mounts by force of his personal quali- 
ties into the higher ranks, for there is no 
caste system that prevents the passing 
from one class into another, — only a class 
prejudice that serves very nearly the same 
purpose, in keeping samurai and heimin in 
their places, that the race prejudice in this 
country serves in confining the negroes, 
North and South, to certain positions and 
occupations. The first division of the mili- 
tary from the peasantry occurred in the 
eighth century, and since then the peculiar 
circumstances of each class have tended to 
produce quite different characteristics in 
persons originally of the same stock. To 
the soldier class have fallen learning, skill 
in arms and horsemanship, opportunities 
to rise to places of honor and power, lives 
free from sordid care in regard to the 
daily rice, and in which noble ideas of duty 
and loyalty can spring up and bear fruit in 
heroic deeds. To the peasant, tilling his 
little rice-field year after year, have come 
the heavy burdens of taxation ; the grind- 
ing toil for a mere pittance of food for 
himself and his family; the patient bearing 
of all things imposed by his superiors, with 



230 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

little hope of gain for himself, whatever 
change the fortunes of war may bring to 
those above him in the social scale. Is 
there wonder that, as the years have gone 
by, his wits have grown heavy under his 
daily drudgery ; that he knows little and 
understands less of the changes that are 
taking place in his native land ; that he is 
easily moved by only one thing, and that 
the failure of his crops, or the shortening 
of his returns from his land by heavier 
taxation ? This is true of the heimin as a 
class: they are conservative, fearing that 
change will but tend to make harder a lot 
that is none too easy ; and though peace- 
able and gentle usually, they may be moved 
to blind acts of riot and bloodshed by any 
political change that seems likely to pro- 
duce heavier taxation, or even by a failure 
of their crops, when they see themselves 
and their families starving while the mili- 
tary and official classes have enough and 
to spare. But though, as a class, the farm- 
ers are ignorant and heavy, they are sel- 
dom entirely illiterate ; and everywhere, 
throughout the country, one finds men be- 
longing to this class who are well educated 
and have risen to positions of much re- 



PEASANT WOMEN. 231 

spoil sibility and power, and are able to hold 
their own, and think for themselves and 
for their brethren. From an article in the 
" Tokyo Mail," entitled " A Memorialist of 
the Latter Days of the Tokngawa Govern- 
ment," I quote passages which show the 
thoughts of one of the heiinin upon the 
condition of his own class about the year 
1850. It is from a petition sent to the 
Shogun by the head-man of the village of 
Ogushi. 

The first point in the petition is, that 
there is a growing tendency to luxury 
among the military and official classes. 
" It is useless to issue orders commanding 
peasants and others to be frugal and in- 
dustrious, when those in power, whose 
duty it is to show a good example to the 
people, are themselves steeped in luxury 
and idleness. " He ventures to reproach 
the Shoguns themselves by pointing to the 
extravagance with which they have deco- 
rated the mausoleums at Mkko and else- 
where. " Is this," he asks, " in keeping 
with the intentions of the glorious founder 
of your dynasty P Look at the shrines in 
Ise and elsewhere, and at the sepulchres of 
the Emperors of successive ages. Is gold 
or silver used in decorating them 9 " He 



232 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

then turns to the vassals of the Shogun, 
and charges them with being tyrannical, 
rapacious, and low-minded. " Samurai," 
he continues, — "samurai are finely attired, 
but how contemptible they look in the eyes 
of those peasants who know how to be con- 
tented with what they have ! " 

Further on in the same memorial, he 
points out what he regards as a grave mis- 
take in the policy of the Shoguu. A de- 
cree had just been issued prohibiting the 
peasantry from exercising themselves with 
sword-play, and from wearing swords. Of 
this he says : " Perhaps this decree may 
have been issued on the supposition that 
Japan is naturally impregnable and de- 
fended on all sides. But when she receives 
insult from a foreign country, it may be- 
come necessary to call on the militia. And 
who knows that men of extraordinary mili- 
tary genius, like Toyotomi, 1 will not again 
appear among the lower classes ? " 

1 Toyotomi Hid^yoshi, a peasant boy, rose from the 
position of a groom to be the actual ruler of Japan dur- 
ing the Middle Ages. He it was who in 1587 issued a 
decree of banishment against the Christian missionaries 
in Japan. He is called Faxiba in the writings of these 
missionaries, and in Japan he is frequently spoken of as 
Taiko Sama, a title, not a name ; but a title that, used 
alone, refers always to him. For further account of his 
life, see Griffis, Mikado'' s Empire, book i., chap. xxiv. 



PEASANT WOMEN. 233 

He ends his memorial with this warn- 
ing-: " Should the Shogun's court, and the 
military class in general, persist in the 
present oppressive way of government, Hea- 
ven will visit this land with still greater 
calamities. If this circumstance is not 
clearly kept in view, the consequence may 
be civil disturbance. I, therefore, beseech 
that the instructions of the glorious foun- 
der of the dynasty be acted upon ; that 
simplicity and frugality be made the guid- 
ing principle of administration ; and that 
a general amnesty be proclaimed, thereby 
complying with the will of Heaven and pla- 
cating the people. Should these humble 
suggestions of mine be acted upon, pro- 
spective calamities will fly before the light 
of virtue. Whether the country is to be 
safe or not depends upon whether the ad- 
ministration is carried on with mercy or 
not. What I pray for is, that the country 
may enjoy peace and tranquillity, that the 
harvest may be plentiful, and that the peo- 
ple may be happy and prosperous." 

One is able to see, by this rather re- 
markable document, that the peasants of 
Japan, though frequently almost crushed 
by the heavy burdens of taxation, do not, 



234 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

even in the most grinding poverty, lose 
entirely that independence of thought and 
of action which is characteristic of their 
nation. They do not consider themselves 
as a servile class, nor their military rulers 
as beyond criticism or reproach, but are 
ready to speak boldly for their rights when- 
ever an opportunity occurs. There is a 
pathetic story, told in Mitford's " Tales of 
Old Japan," of a peasant, the head-man of 
his village, who goes to Yedo to present 
to the Shogun a complaint, on behalf of 
his fellow-villagers, of the extortions and 
exactions of his daimio. He is unable to 
get any one to present his memorial to the 
Shogun, so at last he stops the great lord's 
palanquin in the street, — an act in itself 
punishable with death, — and thrusts the 
paper forcibly into his hand. The petition 
is read, and his fellow-villagers saved from 
further oppression, but the head-man, for 
his daring, is condemned by his own dai- 
mio to suffer death by crucifixion, — a fate 
which he meets with the same heroism 
with which he dared everything to save his 
fellows from suffering. 

The peasant, though ignorant and op- 
pressed, has not lost his manhood; has not 



PEASANT WOMEN. 235 

become a slave or a serf, but clings to his 
rights, so far as he knows what they are ; 
and is ready to hold his own against all 
comers, when the question in debate is one 
that appeals to his mind. The rulers of 
Japan have always the peasantry to reckon 
with when their ruling becomes unjust or 
oppressive. They cannot be cowed, though 
they may be misled for a time, and they 
form a conservative element that serves to 
hold in check too hasty rulers who would 
introduce new measures too quickly, and 
would be likely to find the new wine burst- 
ing the old bottles, as well as to prevent 
any rash extravagance in the way of per- 
sonal expenditure on the part of govern- 
ment officials. The influence of this great 
class will be more and more felt as the 
new parliamentary institutions gain in 
power, and a more close connection is es- 
tablished betweeu the throne and public 
opinion. 

In considering this great heimin class, 
it is well to remember that the artisans, 
who form so large a part of it, are also the 
artists who have made the reputation of 
Japan, in Europe and America, as one of 
the countries where art and the love of 



236 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

beauty in form and color are still instinct 
with life. The Japanese artisan works 
with patient toil, and with the skill and 
originality of the artist, to produce some- 
thing that shall be individual and his own ; 
not simply to make, after a pattern, some 
utensil or ornament for which he cares 
nothing, so long as a purchaser can be 
found for it, or an employer can be induced 
to pay him money for making it. It seems 
as easy for the Japanese to make things 
pretty and in good taste, even when they 
are cheap and only used by the poorer 
people, as it is for American mills and 
workers to turn out endless varieties of at- 
tempts at decoration, — all so hideous that 
a poor person must be content, either to be 
surrounded by the worst possible taste, or 
to purchase only such furnishings and 
utensils as are entirely without decoration 
of any kind. " Cheap " and " nasty " have 
come to be almost synonymous words with 
us, for the reason that taste in decoration 
is so rare that it commands a monopoly 
price, and can only be procured by the 
wealthy. In Japan this is not the case 5 
for the cheapest of things may be found in 
graceful and artistic designs, — indeed can 



PEASANT WOMEN. 237 

hardly be found in any designs that are not 
graceful and artistic ; and the poorest and 
commonest of the people may have about 
them the little things that go to cultivate 
the aesthetic part of human nature. It 
was not the costly art of Japan that inter- 
ested me the most, although that is, of 
course, the most wonderful proof of the 
capacity and patience of individuals among 
this heimin class : but it was the common, 
cheap, every-day art that meets one at 
every turn ; the love for the beautiful, in 
both nature and art, that belongs to the 
common coolie as well as to the nobleman. 
The cheap prints, the blue and white tow- 
els, the common teacups and pots, the 
great iron kettles in use over the fire in 
the farmhouse kitchen, — all these are 
things as pretty and tasteful in their way 
as the rich crepes, the silver incense burn- 
ers, the delicate porcelain, and the elegant 
lacquer that fill the storehouse of the dai- 
mio ; and they show, much more conclu- 
sively than these costlier things, the uni- 
versal sense of beauty among the people. 

The artisan works at his home, helped 
less often by hired laborers than by his 
own children, who learn the trade of their 



238 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

father; and his house, though small, is 
clean and tasteful, with its soft mats, its 
dainty tea service, its little hanging scroll 
upon the walls, and its vase of gracefully 
arranged flowers in the corner ; for flow- 
ers, even in winter and in the great city of 
Tokyo, are so cheap that they are never 
beyond the reach of the poorest. In homes 
that seem to the foreign mind utterly 
lacking in the comforts and even the ne- 
cessities of life, one finds the few furnish- 
ings and utensils beautiful in shape and 
decoration ; and the money that in this 
country must be spent in beds, tables, and 
chairs can be used for the purchase of 
kakemonos, flowers, and vases, and for va- 
rious gratifications of the aesthetic taste. 
Hence it is that the Japanese laborer, who 
lives on a daily wage which would reduce 
an American or European to the verge of 
starvation, finds both time and money for 
the cultivation of that sense of beauty 
which is too often crushed completely out 
of the lower classes by the burdens of this 
nineteenth century civilization which they 
bear upon their shoulders. To the Jap- 
anese, the " life is more than meat," it is 
beauty as well ; and this love of beauty has 



PEASANT WOMEN. 239 

upon him a civilizing and refining effect, 
and makes him in many ways the superior 
of the American day-laborer. 

The peasants and farmers of Japan, 
thrifty and hard-working as they are, are 
not by any means a prosperous class. As 
one passes into the country districts from 
the large cities, there seems to be a con- 
spicuous dearth of neat, pleasant homes, 
— a lack of the comforts and necessities 
of life such as are enjoyed by city people. 
The rich farmers are scarce, and the labor- 
ers in the rice-fields hardly earn, from days 
of hardest toil with the rudest imple- 
ments, the little that will provide for their 
families. In the face of heavy taxes, the 
incessant toil, the frequent floods of late 
years, and the threatening famine, one 
would expect the poor peasants to be a 
most discouraged and unhappy class. That 
all this toil and anxiety does wear on them is 
no doubt true, but the laborers are always 
ready to bear submissively whatever comes, 
and are always hopeful and prepared to en- 
joy life again in happier times. The charms 
of the city tempt them sometimes to ex- 
change their daily labor for the excitement 
of life as jinrikisha men; but iu any case 



240 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

they will be perfectly independent, and ask 
no man for their daily rations. 

Although there is much poverty, there 
are few or no beggars in Japan, for both 
strong and weak find each some occupa- 
tion that brings the little pittance required 
to keep soul and body together, and gives 
to all enough to make them light-hearted, 
cheerful, and even happy. From the rich 
farmer, whose many acres yield enough to 
provide for a home of luxury quite as fine 
as the city homes, to the poor little vender 
of sticks of candy, around whose store the 
children flock like bees with their rin and 
sen, all seem independent, contented, and 
satisfied with their lot in life. 

The religious beliefs of old Japan are 
stronger to-day among the country people 
than among the dwellers in cities. And 
they are still willing to give of their sub- 
stance for the aid of the dying faiths to 
which they cling, and to undertake toil- 
some pilgrimages to obtain some longed- 
for blessing from the gods whom they 
serve. A great Buddhist temple is being 
built in Kyoto to-day, from the lofty ceil- 
ing of which hangs a striking proof of the 
devotion of some of the peasant women 



PEAS.1NT WOMEN. 241 

to the Buddhist faith. The whole tem- 
ple, with its immense curved roof, its vast 
proportions, and its marvelous wood carv- 
ings, has been built by offerings of labor, 
money, and materials made by the faithful. 
The great timbers were given and brought 
to the spot by the countrymen ; and the 
women, wishing to have some part in the 
sacred work, cut off their abundant hair, 
a beauty perhaps more prized by the Jap- 
anese women than by those of other coun- 
tries, and from the material thus obtained 
they twisted immense cables, to be used in 
drawing the timbers from the mountains 
to the site of the temple. The great black 
cables hang in the unfinished temple to- 
day, a sign of the devotion of the women 
who spared not their chief ornament in the 
service of the gods in whom they still be- 
lieve. And a close scrutiny of these touch- 
ing offerings shows that the glossy black 
locks of the young women are mingled 
with the white hairs of those who, by this 
sacrifice, hope to make sure of a quick and 
easy departure from a life already near its 
close. 

All along the Tokaido, the great road 
from Tokyo to Kyoto, in the neighborhood 



242 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

of some holy place, or in the district around 
the great and sacred Fuji, the mountain so 
much beloved and honored in Japanese art, 
will be seen bands of pilgrims slowly walk- 
ing along the road, their worn and soiled 
white garments telling of many days' weary 
march. Their large hats shield them from 
the sun and the rain, and the pieces of 
matting slung over their backs serve them 
for beds to sleep on, when they take shelter 
for the night in rude huts. The way up the 
great mountain of Fuji is lined with these 
pilgrims ; for to attain its summit, and 
worship there the rising sun, is believed 
to be the means of obtaining some special 
blessing. Among these religious devotees, 
in costumes not unlike those of the men, 
under the same large hat and coarse mat- 
ting, old women often are seen, their aged 
faces belying their apparent vigor of body, 
as they walk along through miles and miles 
of country, jingling their bells and holding 
their rosaries until they reach the shrine, 
where they may ask some special blessing 
for their homes, or fulfill some vow already 
made. 

Journeying through rural Japan, one is 
impressed by the important part played by 



PEASANT WOMEN. 243 

women in the various bread-winning indus- 
tries. In the village homes, under the 
heavily thatched roofs, the constant strug- 
gle against poverty and famine will not 
permit the women to hold back, but they 
enter bravely into all the work of the men. 
In the rice-field the woman works side by 
side with the man, standing all clay up to 
her knees in mud, her dress tucked up and 
her lower limbs encased in tight-fitting, 
blue cotton trousers, planting, transplant- 
ing, weeding, and turning over the evil- 
smelling mire, only to be distinguished from 
her husband by her broader belt tied in a 
bow behind. In mountain regions we meet 
the women climbing the steep mountain 
roads, pruning-hook in hand, after wood for 
winter fires ; or descending, towards night, 
carrying a load that a donkey need not be 
ashamed of, packed on a frame attached 
to the shoulders, or poised lightly upon a 
straw mat upon the head. There is one 
village near Kyoto, Yase by name, at the 
base of Hiyei Zan, the historic Buddhist 
stronghold, where the women attain a 
stature and muscular development quite 
unique among the pigmy population of the 
island empire. Strong, jolly, red-cheeked 



244 JAPANESE GIELS AND WOMEN. 

women they are, showing no evidence of 
the shrinking away with the advance of 
old age that is characteristic of most of 
their countrywomen. With their tucked- 
up kimonos and blue cotton trousers, they 
stride up and down the mountain, carrying 
the heaviest and most unwieldy of burdens 
as lightly and easily as the ordinary woman 
carries her baby. My first acquaintance 
with them was during a camping expedi- 
tion upon the sacred mountain. I myself 
was carried up the ascent by two small, 
nearly naked, finely tattooed and moxa- 
scarred men ; but my baggage, consisting 
of two closely packed hampers as large as 
ordinary steamer trunks, was lifted lightly 
to the heads of these feminine porters, and, 
poised on little straw pads, carried easily 
up the narrow trail, made doubly difficult 
by low-hanging branches, to the camp, a 
distance of three or four miles. From 
among these women of Yase*, on account 
of their remarkable physical development, 
have been chosen frequently the nurses for 
the imperial infants ; an honor which the 
Yase villagers duly appreciate, and which 
makes them bear themselves proudly among 
their less favored neighbors. 



PEASANT WOMEN. 245 

In other parts of the country, in the 
neighborhood of Nikko, for instance, the 
care of the horses, mild little pack-mares 
that do much of the burden-bearing in 
those mountains, is mainly in the hands of 
the women. At Nikko, when we would hire 
ponies for a two days' expedition to Yu- 
moto, a little, elderly woman was the per- 
son with whom our bargains were made ; 
and a close bargainer she proved to be, tak- 
ing every advantage that lay in her power. 
When the caravan was ready to start, we 
found that, though each saddle-horse had 
a male groom in attendance, the pack- 
ponies on which our baggage was carried 
were led by pretty little country girls of 
twelve or fourteen, their bright black eyes 
and red cheeks contrasting pleasantly with 
the blue handkerchiefs that adorned their 
heads; their slender limbs encased in blue 
cotton, and only their red sashes giving any 
hint of the fact that they belonged to the 
weaker sex. As we journeyed up the rough 
mountain roads, the little girls kept along 
easily with the rest of the party; leading 
their meek, shock-headed beasts up the slip- 
pery log steps, and passing an occasional 
greeting with some returning pack-train, 



246 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

in which the soft black eyes and bits of 
red about the costume of the little grooms 
showed that they, too, were mountain maid- 
ens, returning' fresh and happy after a two 
days' tramp through the rocky passes. 

In the districts where the silkworm is 
raised, and the silk spun and woven, the 
women play a most important part in this 
productive industry. The care of the 
worms and of the cocoons falls entirely 
upon the women, as well as the spinning 
of the silk and the weaving of the cloth. 
It is almost safe to say that this largest 
and most productive industry of Japan is 
in the hands of the women ; and it is to 
their care and skill that the silk product 
of the islands is due. In the silk districts 
one finds the woman on terms of equality 
with the man, for she is an important factor 
in the wealth-producing power of the fam- 
ily, and is thus able to make herself felt 
as she cannot when her work is inferior to 
that of the men. As a farmer, as a groom, 
or as a porter, a woman is and must remain 
an inferior, but in the care of the silk- 
worms, and all the tasks that belong to silk 
culture, she is the equal of the stronger 
sex. 






PEASANT WOMEN. 247 

Then, again, in the tea districts, the tea 
plantations are tilled with young girls and 
old women, their long sleeves held back by 
a band over the shoulder, and a blue towel 
gracefully fastened over their heads to 
keep off the sun and the dust. They pick 
busily away at the green, tender leaves, 
which will soon be heated and rolled by 
strong men over the charcoal fire. The 
occupation is an easy one, only requiring 
care in the selection of leaves to be picked, 
and can be performed by young girls and 
old women, who gather the glossy leaves 
in their big baskets, while chatting to 
each other over the gossip and news of the 
day. 

In the hotels, both in the country and 
the city, women play an important part. 
The attendants are usually sweet-faced, 
prettily dressed girls, and frequently the 
proprietor of the hotel is a woman. My 
first experience of a Japanese hotel was at 
Nara, anciently the capital of Japan, and 
now a place of resort because of its fine old 
temples, its Dai Butsu, and its beautiful 
deer park. The day's ride in jinrihisha 
from Osaka had brought our party in very 
tired, only to find that the hotel to which 



248 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

we had telegraphed for rooms was already 
filled to overflowing by a daimio and his 
suite. Not a room could be obtained, and 
we were at last obliged to walk some dis- 
tance, for we had dismissed our tired jin- 
rikisha men, to a hotel in the village, of 
which we knew nothing. What with fa- 
tigue and disappointment, we were not pre- 
pared to view the unknown hotel in a very 
rosy light ; and when our guide pointed to 
a small gate leading into a minute, damp 
courtyard, we were quite convinced that 
the hardships of travel in Japan were now 
about to begin ; but disappointment gave 
way to hope, when we were met at the 
door by a buxom landlady, whose smile 
was in itself a refreshment. Although we 
had little in the way of language in com- 
mon, she made us feel at home at once, 
took us to her best room, sent her bloom- 
ing and prettily dressed daughters to bring 
us tea and whatever other refreshments 
the mysterious appetite of a foreigner 
might require, and altogether behaved to- 
ward us in such motherly fashion that fa- 
tigue and gloom departed forthwith, leav- 
ing us refreshed and cheerful. Soon we 
began to feel rested, and our kind friend, 



PEASANT WOMEN. 249 

seeing this, took us upon a tour around the 
house, in which room after room, spotless, 
empty, with shilling woodwork and softest 
of mats, showed the good housekeeping of 
our hostess. A little garden in the centre 
of the house, with dwarf trees, moss-cov- 
ered stones, and running water, gave it an 
air of coolness on the hot July day that was 
almost deceptive ; and the spotless wash- 
room, with its great stone sink, its polished 
brass basins, its stone well-curb, half in 
and half out of the house, was cool and 
clean and refreshing merely to look at. A 
two days' stay in this hotel showed that the 
landlady was the master of the house. Her 
husband was about the house constantly, as 
were one or tw 7 o other men, but they all 
worked under the direction of the energetic 
head of affairs. She it was who managed 
everything, from the cooking of the meals 
in the kitchen to the filling and heating of 
the great bath-tub into which the guests 
were invited to enter every afternoon, one 
after the other, in the order of their rank. 
On the second night of my stay, at a late 
hour, when I supposed that the whole 
house had retired to rest, I crept softly out 
of my room to try to soothe the plaintive 



250 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

wails of my dog", who was complaining bit- 
terly that he was made to sleep in the 
wood-cellar instead of in his mistress's 
room, as his habit had always been. As I 
stole quietly along, fearing lest I should 
arouse the sleeping house, I heard the in- 
quiring voice of my landlady sound from 
the bath-room, the door of which stood 
wide open. Afraid that she would think 
me in mischief if I did not show myself, I 
went to the door, to find her, after her 
family was safely stowed away for the night, 
taking her ease in the great tub of hot 
water, and so preparing herself for a sound, 
if short, night's sleep. She accepted my 
murmured Inu (dog) as an excuse, and 
graciously dismissed me with a smile, and 
I returned to my room feeling safe under 
the vigilant care that seemed to guard 
the house by night as well as by day. I 
have seen many Japanese hotels and mauy 
careful landladies since, but no one among 
them all has made such an impression as 
my pleasant hostess at Nara. 

Not only hotels, but little tea-houses all 
through Japan, form openings for the busi- 
ness abilities of women, both in country 
and city. Wherever you go, no matter how 



PEASANT WOMEN. 251 

remote the district or how rough the road, 
at every halting point you find a tea-house. 
Sometimes it is quite an extensive restau- 
rant, with several rooms for the entertain- 
ment of guests, and a regular kitchen 
where fairly elaborate cooking can be done; 
sometimes it is only a rough shelter, at one 
end of which water is kept boiling over a 
charcoal brazier, while at the other end a 
couple of seats, covered with mats or a scar- 
let blanket or two, serve as resting-places 
for the patrons of the establishment. But 
whatever the place is, there will be one 
woman or more iu attendance ; and if you 
sit down upon the mats, you will he served 
at once with tea, and later, should you re- 
quire more, with whatever the establish- 
ment can afford, — it may be only a slice of 
watermelon, or a hard pear; it may be eels 
on rice, vermicelli, egg soup, or a regular 
dinner, should the tea-house be one of the 
larger and more elaborately appointed ones. 
When the feast is over, the refreshments 
you have especially ordered are paid for iu 
the regular way ; but for the tea and sweet- 
meats offered, for which no especial charge 
is made, you are expected to leave a small 
sum as a present. In the less aristocratic 



252 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

resting-places, a few cents for each person 
is sufficient to leave on the waiter with the 
empty cups of tea, for which loud and grate- 
ful thanks will be shouted out to the re- 
tiring party. 

In the regular inn, the chadai 1 amounts 
to several dollars, for a party remaining 
any time, and it is supposed to pay for all 
the extra services and attention bestowed 
on guests by the polite host and hostess 
and the servants in attendance. The cha- 
dai, done up neatly in paper, with the words 
On chadai written on it, is given with as 
much formality as any present in Japan. 
The guest claps his hands to summon the 
maid. When it is heard, for the thin pa- 
per walls of a Japanese house let through 
every noise, voices from all sides will shout 
out He'-he', or Hai, which means that you 
have been heard, and understood. Pres- 
ently a maid will softly open your door, 
and with head low down will ask what 
you wish. You tell her to summon the 

1 Chadai is, literally, "money for tea," and is equiva- 
lent to our tips to the waiters and porters at hotels. The 
chadai varies with the wealth and rank of the guests, the 
duration of the stay, and the attention which has been 
bestowed. On is the honorific placed before the word in 
writing*. 



PEASANT WOMEN. 253 

landlord. In a few moments he appears, 
and you push the cliadai to him, mak- 
ing some conventional self- depreciating 
speech, as, "You have done a great deal 
for our comfort, and we wish to give you 
this chadai, though it is only a trifle." 
The landlord, with every expression of sur- 
prise, will how down to the ground with 
thanks, raising the small package to his 
head in token of acceptance and gratitude, 
and will murmur in low tones how little 
he has done for the comfort of his guests ; 
and then, the self-depreciation and formal 
words of thanks on his side being ended, 
he will finally go down stairs to see how 
much he has gotten. But, whether more 
or less than he had expected, nothing but 
extreme gratitude and politeness appears 
on his face as he presents a fan, confec- 
tionery, or some trifle, as a return for the 
cliadai, and speeds the parting guests with 
his lowest bow and kindliest smile, after 
having seen to every want that could be 
attended to. 

Once, at Nikko, I started with a friend 
for a morning walk to a place described in 
the guide-book. The day was hot and the 
guide-book hazy, and we lost the road to 



254 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

the place for which we had set out, but 
found ourselves at last in a beautiful gar- 
den, with a pretty lake in its centre, a lit- 
tle red-lacquered shrine reflected in the 
lake, and a tea-house hospitably open at 
one side. The teakettle was boiling over 
the little charcoal fire ; melons, eggs, and 
various unknown comestibles were on the 
little counter ; but no voice bade us wel- 
come as we approached, and when we sat 
down on the edge of the piazza, we could 
see no one within the house. We waited, 
however, for the day was hot, and time is 
not worth much in rural Japan. Pretty 
soon a small, wizened figure made its ap- 
pearance in the distance, hurrying and 
talking excitedly as it came near enough 
to see two foreign ladies seated upon the 
piazza. Many bows and profuse apologies 
were made by the little old woman, who 
seemed to be the solitary occupant of the 
pretty garden, and who had for the mo- 
ment deserted her post to do the day's mar- 
keting in the neighboring village. The 
apologies having been smilingly received, 
the old lady set herself to the task of 
making her guests comfortable. First she 
brought two tumblers of water, cold as ice 5 



PEASANT WOMEN. 255 

from the spring* that gushed out of a great 
rock in the middle of the little lake. Then 
she retired hehind a screen and changed 
her dress, returning speedily to bring us 
tea. Then she retreated to her diminutive 
kitchen, and presently came back smiling, 
bearing eight large raw potatoes on a tray. 
These she presented to us with a deep bow, 
apparently satisfied that she had at last 
brought us something we would be sure 
to like. We left the potatoes behind us 
when we went away, and undoubtedly the 
old lady is wondering still over the mys- 
terious ways of the foreigners, as we are 
over those of the Japanese tea-house keep- 
ers. 

One summer, when I was spending a 
week at a Japanese hotel at quite a fash- 
ionable seaside resort, I became interested 
in a little old woman who visited the hotel 
daily, carrying, suspended by a yoke from 
her shoulders, two baskets of fruit, which 
she sold to the guests of the hotel. As I 
was on the ground floor, and my room was, 
in the daytime, absolutely without walls 
on two sides, she was my frequent visitor, 
and, for the sake of her pleasant ways 
and cheerful smiles, I bought enough hard 



256 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

pears of her to have given the colic to an 
elephant. One day, after her visit to me, 
as I was sitting upon the matted and roofed 
square that served me for a room, my eye 
wandered idly toward the bathing beach 3 
and, under the slight shelter where the 
bathers were in the habit of depositing 
their sandals and towels, I spied the well- 
known yoke and fruit baskets, as well as a 
small heap of blue cotton garments that I 
knew to be the clothing of the little fruit- 
vender. She had evidently taken a mo- 
ment when trade was slack to enjoy a dip 
in the soft, blue, summer sea. Hardly had 
I made up my mind as to the meaning of 
the fruit baskets and the clothing, when 
our little friend herself emerged from the 
sea and, sitting down on a bench, pro- 
ceeded to rub herself off with the small 
but artistically decorated blue towel that 
every peasant in Japan has always with 
him, however lacking he may be in all 
other appurtenances of the toilet. As she 
sat there, placidly rubbiug away, a friend 
of the opposite sex made his appearance 
on the scene. I watched to see what she 
would do, for the Japanese code of eti- 
quette is quite different from ours in such 



PEASANT WOMEN. 257 

a predicament. She continued her em- 
ployment until he was quite close, showing 
no unseemly haste, but continuing her pol- 
ishing off in the same leisurely manner in 
which she had begun it ; then at the proper 
moment she rose from her seat, bowed 
profoundly, and smilingly exchanged the 
greetings proper for the occasion, both 
parties apparently unconscious of any lack 
in the toilet of the lady. The male friend 
then passed on about his business ; the lit- 
tle woman completed her toilet without 
further interruptions, shouldered her yoke, 
and jogged cheerfully on to her home in 
the little village, a couple of miles away. 

As one travels through rural Japan in 
summer and sees the half-naked men, wo- 
men, and children that pour out from every 
village on one's route and surround the 
huruma at every stopping place, one some- 
times wonders whether there is in the 
country any real civilization, whether these 
half-naked people are not more savage than 
civilized; but when one finds everywhere 
good hotels, scrupulous cleanliness in all 
the appointments of toilet and table, polite 
and careful service, honest and willing per- 
formance of labor bargained for, together 



258 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

with the gentlest and pleasantest of man- 
ners, even on the part of the gaping crowd 
that shut out light and air from the trav- 
eling foreigner who rests for a moment at 
the village inn, one is forced to reconsider 
a judgment formed only upon one peculi- 
arity of the national life, and to conclude 
that there is certainly a high type of civili- 
zation in Japan, though differing in many 
important particulars from our own. A 
careful study of the Japanese ideas of de- 
cency, and frequent conversation with re- 
fined and intelligent Japanese ladies upon 
this subject, has led me to the following 
conclusion. According to the Japanese 
standard, any exposure of the person that 
is merely incidental to health, cleanliness, 
or convenience in doing necessary work, 
is perfectly modest and allowable ; but an 
exposure, no matter how slight, that is 
simply for show, is in the highest degree 
indelicate. In illustration of the first part 
of this conclusion, I would refer to the 
open bath-houses, the naked laborers, the 
exposure of the lower limbs in wet weather 
by the turning up of the kimono, the en- 
tirely nude condition of the country chil- 
dren in summer, and the very slight cloth- 



PEASANT WOMEN. 259 

ing that even adults regard as necessary 
about the house or in the country during 
the hot season. In illustration of the last 
part, I would mention the horror with 
which many Japanese ladies regard that 
style of foreign dress which, while covering 
the figure completely, reveals every detail 
of the form above the waist, and, as we say, 
shows off to advantage a pretty figure. To 
the Japanese mind it is immodest to want 
to show off a pretty figure. As for the 
ball-room costumes, where neck and arms 
are freely exposed to the gaze of multi- 
tudes, the Japanese woman, who would 
with entire composure take her bath in 
the presence of others, would be in an 
agony of shame at the thought of appear- 
ing in public in a costume so indecent as 
that worn by many respectable American 
and European women. Our judgment 
would indeed be a hasty one, should we 
conclude that the sense of decency is want- 
ing in the Japanese as a race, or that the 
women are at all lacking in the womanly 
instinct of modesty. When the point of 
view from which they regard these mat- 
ters is once obtained, the apparent incon- 
sistencies and incongruities are fully ex- 



260 JAPANESE GIELS AND WOMEN. 

plained, and we can do justice to our Jap- 
anese sister in a matter in regard to which 
she is too often cruelly misjudged. 

There seems no doubt at all that among 
the peasantry of Japan one finds the wo- 
men who have the most freedom aud inde- 
pendence. Among this class, all through 
the country, the women, though hard- 
worked and possessing few comforts, lead 
lives of intelligent, independent labor, and 
have in the family positions as respected 
and honored as those held by women in 
America. Their lives are fuller and hap- 
pier than those of the women of the higher 
classes, for they are themselves bread-win- 
ners, contributing an important part of 
the family revenue, aud they are obeyed 
and respected accordingly. The Japanese 
lady, at her marriage, lays aside her in- 
dependent existence to become the subor- 
dinate and servant of her husband and 
parents-in-law, and her face, as the years 
go by, shows how much she has given up, 
how completely she has sacrificed herself 
to those about her. The Japanese peasant 
woman, when she marries, works side by 
side with her husband, finds life full of 
interest outside of the simple household 



PEASANT WOMEN. 261 

work, and, as the years go by, her face 
shows more individuality, more pleasure in 
life, less suffering and disappointment, than 
that of her wealthier and less hard-working 
sister* 



CHAPTER X. 

LIFE IN THE CITIES. 

The great cities of Japan afford remark- 
able opportunities for seeing the life of the 
common people, for the little houses and 
shops, with their open fronts, reveal the 
penetralia in a way not known in our more 
secluded homes. The employment of the 
merchant being formerly the lowest of re- 
spectable callings, one does not find even 
yet in Japan many great stores or a very 
high standard of business morality, for the 
business of the country was left in the 
hands of those who were too stupid or too 
unambitious to raise themselves above that 
social class. Hence English and Ameri- 
can merchants, who only see Japan from 
the business side, continually speak of the 
Japanese as dishonest, tricky, and alto- 
gether unreliable, and greatly prefer to 
deal with the Chinese, who have much of 
the business virtue that is characteristic 
of the English as a nation. Only within a 



LIFE IN THE CITIES. 263 

few years have the samurai, or indeed any 
one who was capable of figuring in any 
higher occupation in life, been williug to 
adopt the calling of the merchant; but 
many of the abler Japanese of to-day have 
begun to see that trade is one of the most 
important factors of a nation's well-being, 
and that the business of buying and sell- 
ing, if wisely and honestly done, is an em- 
ployment that nobody need be ashamed to 
enter. There are in Japan a few great 
merchants whose word may be trusted, and 
whose obligations will be fulfilled with ab- 
solute honesty; but a large part of the 
buying and selling is still in the hands of 
mercantile freebooters, who will take an 
advantage wherever it is possible to get 
one, in whose morality honesty has no 
place, and who have not yet discovered the 
efficacy of that virtue simply as a matter 
of policy. Their trade, conducted in a 
small way upon small means, is more of 
the nature of a game, in which one person 
is the winner and the other the loser, than 
a fair exchange, in which both parties ob- 
tain what they want. It is the mediaeval, 
not the modern idea of business, that is 
still held among Japanese merchants. With 



264 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

them, trade is a warfare between buyer 
and seller, in which every man must take 
all possible advantage for himself, and it 
is the lookout of the other party if he is 
cheated. 

In Tokyo, the greatest and most modern- 
ized of the cities of the empire, the shops 
are not the large city stores that one sees 
in European and American cities, but little 
open-fronted rooms, on the edge of which 
one sits to make one's purchases, while the 
proprietor smiles and bows and dickers; 
setting his price by the style of his cus- 
tomer's dress, or her apparent ignorance 
of the value of the desired article. Some 
few large dry-goods stores there are, where 
prices are set and dickering is unneces- 
sary ; and in the kwankoba, or bazaars, one 
may buy almost anything needed by Japa- 
nese of all classes, from house furnishings 
to foreign hats, at prices plainly marked 
upon them, and from which there is no 
variation. But one's impression of the 
state of trade in Japan is, that it is still 
in a very primitive and undeveloped condi- 
tion, and is surprisingly behind the other 
parts of Japanese civilization. 

The shopping of the ladies of the large 



LIFE IN THE CITIES. 265 

yashikis and of wealthy families is done 
mostly in the home ; for all the stores are 
willing at any time, on receiving an order, 
to send up a clerk with a hale of crepes, 
silks, and cottons tied to his back, and fre- 
quently towering high above his head as 
he walks, making him look like the pro- 
verbial ant with a grain of wheat. He 
sets his great bundle carefully down on 
the floor, opens the enormous furushihi, or 
bundle handkerchief, in which it is envel- 
oped, and takes out roll after roll of silk or 
chintz, neatly done up in paper or yellow 
cotton. With infinite patience, he waits 
while the merits of each piece are ex- 
amined and discussed, and if none of his 
stock proves satisfactory, he is willing to 
come again with a new set of wares, know- 
ing that in the end purchases will be made 
sufficient to cover all his trouble. 

The less aristocratic people are content 
to go to the stores themselves; and the 
business streets of a Japanese city, such as 
the Ginza in Tokyo, are full of women, 
young and old, as well as merry children, 
who enjoy the life and bustle of the stores. 
Like all things else in Japan, shopping 
takes plenty of time. At Mitsui's, the 



266 JAPANESE GIELS AND WOMEN. 

largest silk store in Tokyo, one will see 
crowds of clerks sitting upon the matted 
floors, each with his soroban, or adding 
machine, by his side ; and innumerable 
small boys, who rush to and fro, carrying 
armfuls of fabrics to the different clerks, 
or picking up the same fabrics after the 
customer who has called for them has de- 
parted. The store appears, to the foreign 
eye, to be simply a roofed and matted plat- 
form upon which both clerks and customers 
sit. This platform is screened from the 
street by dark blue cotton curtains or awn- 
ings hung from the low projecting eaves 
of the heavy roof. As the customers 
take their seats, either on the edge of the 
platform, or, if they have come on an ex- 
tended shopping bout, upon the straw mat 
of the platform itself, a small boy appears 
with tea for the party ; an obsequious clerk 
greets them with the customary saluta- 
tions of welcome, pushes the charcoal bra- 
zier toward them, that they may smoke, 
or warm their hands, before proceeding to 
business, and then waits expectantly for 
the name of the goods that his customers 
desire to see. When this is given, the 
work begins ; the little boys are summoned, 



LIFE IN THE CITIES. 267 

and are soon sent off to the great fire-proof 
warehouse, which stands with heavy doors 
thrown open, on the other side of the plat- 
form, away from the street. Through the 
doorway one can see endless piles of costly 
stuffs stored safely away, and from these 
piles the boys select the required fabric, 
loading themselves down with them so that 
they can barely stagger under the weights 
that they carry. As the right goods are 
not always brought the first time, and as, 
moreover, there is an endless variety in the 
colors and patterus in even one kind of 
silk, there is always plenty of time for 
watching the busy scene, — for sipping 
tea, or smoking a few whiffs from the tiny 
pipes that so many Japanese, both men and 
women, carry always with them. When 
the purchase is at last made, there is still 
some time to be spent by the customer in 
waiting until the clerk has made an ab- 
struse calculation upon his soroban, the 
transaction has been entered in the books 
of the firm, and a long bill has been writ- 
ten and stamped, and handed to her with 
the bundle. During her stay in the store, 
the foreign customer, making her first 
visit to the place, is frequently startled by 



268 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

loud shouts from the whole staff of clerks 
and small boys, — outcries so sudden, so 
simultaneous, and so stentorian, that she 
cannot rid herself of the idea that some- 
thing terrible is happening every time that 
they occur. She soon learns, however, that 
these manifestations of energy are but 
the way in which the Japanese merchant 
speeds the departing purchaser, and that 
the apparently inarticulate shouts are but 
the formal phrase, " Thanks for your con- 
tinued favors," which is repeated in a loud 
tone by every employee in the store when- 
ever a customer departs. When she her- 
self is at last ready to leave, a chorus of 
yells arises, this time for her benefit ; and as 
she skips into the jinrikisha and is whirled 
away, she hears continued the busy hum 
of voices, the clattering of sorobans, the 
thumping of the bare feet of the heavily 
la'den boys, and the loud shouts of thanks 
with which departing guests are honored. 
There is less pomp and circumstance 
about the smaller stores, for all the goods 
are within easy reach, and the shops for 
household utensils and chinaware seem to 
have nearly the whole stock in trade piled 
up in front, or even in the street itself. 



LIFE IN THE CITIES. 269 

Many such little places are the homes of 
the people who keep them. And at the 
back are rooms, which serve for dwelling 
rooms, opening upon well-kept gardenso 
The whole work of the store is often at- 
tended to by the proprietor, assisted by his 
wife and family, and perhaps one or two 
apprentices. Each of the workers, in turn, 
takes an occasional holiday, for there is 
no day in the Japanese calendar when the 
shops are all closed ; and even New Year's 
Day, the great festival of the year, finds 
most of the stores open. Yet the dwellers 
in these little homes, living almost in the 
street, and in the midst of the bustle and 
crowd and dust of Tokyo, have still time 
to enjoy their -holidays and their little gar- 
dens, and have more pleasure and less hard 
work than those under similar circum- 
stances in our own country. 

The stranger visiting any of the great 
Japanese cities is surprised by the lack of 
large stores and manufactories, and often 
wonders where the beautiful lacquer work 
and porcelains are made, and where the 
gay silks and crepes are woven. There 
are no large establishments where such 
things are turned out by wholesale. The 



270 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

delicate vases, the bronzes, and the silks 
are often made in humblest homes, the 
work of one or two laborers with rudest 
tools. There are no great manufactories 
to be seen, and the bane of so many cities, 
the polluting factory smoke, never rises 
over the cities of Japan. The hard, con- 
fining factory life, with its never-ceasing 
roar of machinery, bewildering the minds 
and intellects of the men who come under 
its deadening influences, until they become 
scarcely more than machines themselves, 
is a thing as yet almost unknown in Japan. 
The life of the jinrikisha man even, hard 
and comfortless as it may seem to run all 
day like a horse through the crowded city 
streets, is one that keeps him in the fresh 
air, under the open sky, and quickens his 
powers both of body and mind. To the 
poor in Japanese cities is never denied the 
fresh air and sunshine, green trees and 
grass; and the beautiful parks and gardens 
are found everywhere, for the enjoyment of 
even the meanest and lowest. 

On certain days in the month, in differ- 
ent sections of the city, are held night fes- 
tivals near temples, aild many shopkeepers 
take the opportunity to erect temporary 



LIFE IN THE CITIES. 271 

booths, in which they so arrange their 
wares as to tempt the passers-by as they 
go to and fro. Very often there is a mag- 
nificent display of young trees, potted 
plants, and flowers, brought in from the 
country and ranged on both sides of the 
street. Here the gardeners make lively 
sales, as the displays are often fine in 
themselves, and show to a special advan- 
tage in the flaring torchlight. The eager 
venders, who do all they can to call the 
attention of the crowd to their wares, make 
many good bargains. The purchase re- 
quires skill on both sides, for flower men 
are proverbial in their high charges, ask- 
ing often five and ten times the real value 
of a plant, but coming down in price al- 
most immediately on remonstrance. You 
ask the price of a dwarf wistaria growing 
in a pot. The man answers at once, " Two 
dollars." "Two dollars ! " you answer in 
surprise, " it is not worth more than thirty 
or forty cents. " " Seventy-five, then," he 
will respond ; and thus the buyer and 
seller approach nearer in price, until the 
bargain is struck somewhere near the first 
price offered. Price another plant and 
there would be the same process to go over 



272 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

again ; but as the evening passes, prices go 
lower and lower, for the distances that the 
plants have been brought are great, and 
the labor of loading up and carrying back 
the heavy pots is a weary one, and when 
the last customer has departed the mer- 
chants must work late into the night to 
get their wares safely home again. 

But beside the flower shows, there are 
long rows of booths, which, with the many 
visitors who throng the streets, make a gay 
and lively scene. So dense is the crowd 
that it is with difficulty one can push 
through on foot or in jinrikisha. The 
darkness is illuminated by torches, whose 
weird flames flare and smoke in the wind, 
and shine down upon the little sheds which 
line both sides of the road, and contain 
so tempting a display of cheap toys and 
trinkets that not only the children, but 
their elders, are attracted by them. Some 
of the booths are devoted to dolls; others 
to toys of various kinds ; still others to 
birds in cages, goldfish in globes, queer 
chirping insects in wicker baskets, pretty 
ornaments for the hair, fans, candies, and 
cakes of all sorts, roasted beans and pea- 
nuts, and other things too numerous to 



LIFE IN THE CITIES. 273 

mention. The long line of stalls ends with 
booths, or tents, in which shows of dan- 
cing, jugglery, educated animals, and mon- 
strosities, natural or artificial, may he seen 
for the moderate admission fee of two 
sen. Each of these shows is well adver- 
tised by the beating of drums, by the shout- 
ing of doorkeepers, by wonderful pictures 
on the outside to entice the passer-by, or 
even by an occasional brief lifting of the 
curtains which veil the scene from the 
crowd without, just long enough to af- 
ford a tantalizing glimpse of the wonders 
within. Great is the fascination to the 
children in all these things, and the little 
feet are never weary until the last booth 
is passed, and the quiet of neighboring 
streets, lighted only by wandering lan- 
terns, strikes the ho me- returning party by 
its contrast with the light and noise of the 
festival. The supposed object of the expe- 
dition, the visit to the temple, has occupied 
but a small share of time and attention, 
and the little hands are filled with the 
amusing toys and trifles bought, and the 
little minds with the merry sights seen. 
Nor are those who remain at home forgot- 
ten, but the pleasure-seekers who visit the 



274 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

fair carry away with them little gifts for 
each member of the family, and the mi- 
age, or present given on the return, is a 
regular institution of Japanese home life. 1 

By ten o'clock, when the crowds have 
dispersed and the purchasers have all gone 
home and gone to bed, the busy booth-keep- 
ers take down their stalls, pack up their 
wares, and disappear, leaving no trace of the 
night's gayeties to greet the morning sun. 

Beside these evening shows, which oc- 
cur monthly or oftener, there are also great 
festivals of the various gods, some cele- 
brated annually, others at intervals of some 
years. These matsuri last for several days, 
and during that time the quarter of the 
city in which they occur seems entirely 
given over to festivity. The streets are 
gayly decorated with flags, and bright lan- 
terns — all alike in design and color — are 
hung in rows from the low eaves of the 
houses. Young bamboo-trees set along the 
street, and decorated with bits of bright- 
colored tissue paper, are a frequent and ef- 

1 O miage must be given, not only on the return from 
an evening of pleasure, but also on the return from a jour- 
ney or pleasure trip of any kind. As a rule, the longer 
the absence, the finer and more costly must be the pre- 
sents given on returning. 



LIFE IN THE CITIES. 275 

fective accompaniment of these festivals, 
and here and there throughout the dis- 
trict are set up high stands, on the tops of 
which musicians with squeaky flutes, and 
drums of varying calibre, keep up a din 
more festive than harmonious. It takes 
a day or two for the rejoicings to get fully 
under way, but by the second or third day 
the fun is at its height, and the streets 
are thronged with merrymakers. A great 
deal of labor and strength, as well as inge- 
nuity, is spent in the construction of enor- 
mous floats, or dashi, lofty platforms of 
two stories, either set on wheels and drawn 
by black bullocks or crowds of shouting 
men, or carried by poles on men's shoul- 
ders. Upon the first floor of these great 
floats is usually a company of dancers, or 
mummers, who dance, attitudinize, or make 
faces for the amusement of the crowds 
that gather along their route; while up 
above, an effigy of some hero in Japanese 
history, or the figure of some animal or 
monster, looks down unmoved upon the ab- 
surdities below. Each dashi is attended, 
not only by the men who draw it, but by 
companies of others in some uniform cos- 
tume ; and sometimes graceful professional 



276 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

dancing-girls are hired to march in the 
matsuri procession, or to dance upon the 
loft j dashi. At the time of the festivities 
which accompanied the promulgation of 
the Constitution, three days of jollification 
were held in Tokyo, days of such universal 
fun and frolic that it will be known among 
the common people, to all succeeding gen- 
erations, as the " Emperor's big matsuri" 
Every quarter of the city vied with every 
other in the production of gorgeous dashi, 
and the streets were gay with every con- 
ceivable variety of decoration, from the lit- 
tle red-and-white paper lanterns, that even 
the poorest hung before their houses, to 
the great evergreen arches, set with elec- 
tric lights, with which the great business 
streets were spanned thickly from end to 
end. An evening walk through one of 
these thoroughfares was a sight to be re- 
membered for a lifetime. The magnificent 
dashi represented all manner of quaint 
conceits. A great bivalve drawn by yell- 
ing crowds — which halted occasionally — 
opened and displayed between its shells 
a group of beautifully dressed girls, who 
danced one of the pantomimic dances of 
the country, accompanied by the twanging 



LIFE IN THE CITIES. 277 

melodies of the samisen. Then slowly the 
great shell closed, once more the shout- 
ing crowds seized hold of the straining 
ropes, and the great bivalve with its fair 
freight was drawn slowly along through the 
gayly illuminated streets. Jimmu Tenno 
and other heroes of Japanese legend or his- 
tory, each upon its lofty platform, a white 
elephant, and countless other subjects were 
represented in the festival cars sent forth 
by all the districts of the city to celebrate 
the great event. 

Upon such festival occasions the shop- 
keeper does not put up his shutters and 
leave his place of business, but the open 
shop-fronts add much to the gay appear- 
ance of the street. There are no signs of 
business about, but the floor of the shop is 
covered with bright-red blankets ; magnifi- 
cent gilded screens form an imposing back- 
ground to the little room ; and seated on 
the floor are the shopkeeper, his family, 
and guests, eating, drinking tea, and smok- 
ing, as cosily as if all the world and his 
wife were not gazing upon the gay and 
homelike interior. Sometimes companies 
of dancers, or other entertainments fur- 
nished by the wealthier shopkeepers, will 



278 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

attract gaping crowds, who watch and hlock 
the street until the advance guard of some 
approaching dashi scatters them for a mo- 
ment. 

Iu Japan, as in other parts of the world, 
the country people are rather looked down 
upon hy the dwellers in the city for their 
slowness of intellect, dowdiuess of dress, 
and boorishness of manners ; while the 
country people make fun of the fads and 
fashions of the city, and rejoice that they 
are not themselves the slaves of novelty, 
and especially of the foreign innovations 
that play so prominent a part in Japanese 
city life to-day. " The frog in the well 
knows not the great ocean," is the snub 
with which the Japanese cockney sets down 
Farmer Rice-Field's expressions of opinion ; 
while the conservative countryman laughs 
at the foreign affectations of the Tokyo man, 
and returns to his village with tales of the 
cookery of the capital: so extravagant is 
it that sugar is used in everything ; it is 
even rumored that the Tokyoites put sugar 
in their tea. 

But while the country laughs and won- 
ders at the city, nevertheless, in Japan as 
elsewhere, there is a constant crowding of 



LIFE IN THE CITIES 279 

the young life of the country into the live- 
lier and more entertaining' city. Tokyo es- 
pecially is the goal of every young coun- 
tryman's ambition, and thither he goes to 
seek his fortune, finding, alas ! too often, 
only the hard lot of the jinrikisha man, 
instead of the wealth and power that his 
country dreams had shown him. 

The lower class women of the cities are 
in many respects like their sisters of the 
rural districts, except that they have less 
freedom thau the country women in what 
the economists call "direct production." 
The wells and water tanks that stand at 
convenient distances along the streets of 
Tokyo are frequently surrounded by crowds 
of women, drawing water, washing rice, 
and chattering merrily over their occupa- 
tions. They meet and exchange ideas 
freely with each other and with the men, 
but they have not the diversity of labor 
that country life affords, confining them- 
selves more closely to indoor and domestic 
work, and leaving the bread-winning more 
entirely to the men. 

There are, however, occupations in the 
city for women, by which they may support 
themselves or their families. A good hair- 



280 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

dresser may make a handsome living; in- 
deed, she does so well that it is proverbial 
among the Japanese that a hair-dresser's 
husband has nothing to do. Though pro- 
fessional tailors are mostly men, many wo- 
men earn a small pittance in taking in 
sewing and in giving sewing lessons ; and 
as instructors in the ceremonial tea, eti- 
quette, music, painting, and flower ar- 
rangement, many women of the old school 
are able to earn an independence, though 
none of these occupations are confined to 
the women alone. 

The business of hotel-keeping we have 
referred to in a previous chapter, and it 
is a well-known fact that unless a hotel- 
keeper has a capable wife, his business will 
not succeed. At present, all over Tokyo, 
small restaurants, where food is served in 
the foreign style, are springing up, and 
these are usually conducted by a man and 
his wife who have at some time served as 
cook and waitress in a foreign family, and 
who conduct the business cooperatively and 
on terms of good-fellowship and equality. 
In these little eating-houses, where a well=- 
cooked foreign dinner of from three to six 
courses is served for the moderate sum of 



LIFE IN THE CITIES. 281 

thirty or forty cents, the man usually does 
the cooking, the woman the serving and 
handling of the money, until the time ar- 
rives when the profits of the business are 
sufficient to justify the hiring of more help. 
When this time comes, the labor is re- 
distributed, the woman frequently taking 
upon herself the reception of the guests 
and the keeping of the accounts, while the 
hired help waits on the tables. 

One important calling, in the eyes of 
many persons, especially those of the lower 
classes, is that of fortune -telling; and 
these guides in all matters of life, both 
great and small, are to be found in every 
section of the city. They are consulted on 
every important step by believing ones of 
all classes. An impending marriage, an 
illness, the loss of any valuable article, a 
journey about to be taken, — these are all 
subjects for the fortune-teller. He tells the 
right day of marriage, and says whether 
the fates of the two parties will combine 
well ; gives clues to the causes of sudden 
illness, and information as to what has 
become of lost articles, and whether they 
will be recovered or not. Warned thus by 
the fortune-teller against evils that may 



282 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

happen, many ingenious expedients are 
resorted to, to avoid the ill foretold. 

A man and his family were about to 
move from their residence to another part 
of the city. They sent to know if the 
fates were propitious to the change for all 
the family. The day and year of birth of 
each was told, and then the fortune-teller 
hunted up the various signs, and sent word 
that the direction of the new home was 
excellent for the good luck of the family 
as a whole, and the move a good one for 
each member of it except one of the sons ; 
the next year the same move would be bad 
for the father. As the family could not 
wait two years before moving, it was de- 
cided that the change of residence should 
be made at once, but that the son should 
live with his uncle until the next year. 
The uncle's home was, however, incon- 
veniently remote, and so the young man 
stayed as a visitor at his father's house for 
the remaining months of the year, after 
which he became once more a member of 
the household. Thus the inconvenience 
and the evil were both avoided. 

Another story comes to my mind now of 
a dear old lady, the Go Inkyo Sama of a 



LIFE IN THE CITIES. 283 

house of high rank, who late in life came 
to Tokyo to live with her brother and his 
young aud somewhat foreignized wife. The 
brother himself, while not a Christian, had 
little belief in the old superstitions of his 
people ; his wife was a professing Chris- 
tian. Soon after the old lady's arrival in 
Tokyo, her sister-in-law fell ill, and before 
she had recovered her strength the chil- 
dren, one after another, came down with 
various diseases, which, though in no case 
fatal, kept the family in a state of anxiety 
for more than a year. The old lady was 
quite sure that there was some witchcraft 
or art-magic at work among her dear ones, 
and, after consulting the servants (for she 
knew that she could expect no sympathy in 
her plans from either her brother or his 
wife), she betook herself to a fortune-teller 
to discover through his means the causes 
of the illness in the family. The fortune- 
teller revealed to her the fact that two 
occult forces were at work bringing evil 
upon the house. One was the evil spirit 
of a spring or well that had been choked 
with stones, or otherwise obstructed in its 
flow, and that chose this way of bringing 
its afflictions to the attention of mortals. 



284 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN, 

The other was the spirit of a horse that 
had once belonged in the family, and that 
after death revenged itself upon its former 
masters for the hard service wherewith 
it had been made to serve. The only way 
in which these two powers could be ap- 
peased would be by finding the well, and 
removing the obstructions that choked it, 
and by erecting an image of the horse and 
offering to it cakes and other meat-offer- 
ings. The fortune-teller hinted, moreover, 
that for a consideration he might be able 
to afford material aid in the search for the 
well. 

At this information Go Inkyo Sama was 
much perturbed, for further aid for her 
afflicted family seemed to require the use 
of money, and of that commodity she had 
very little, being mainly dependent upon 
her brother for support. She returned to 
her home and consulted the servants upon 
the matter; but though they quite agreed 
with her that something should be done, 
they had little capital to invest in the en- 
terprises suggested by the fortune-teller. 
At last, the old lady went to her brother, 
but he only laughed at her well-meant at- 
tempts to help his family, and refused to 



LIFE IN THE CITIES. 285 

give her money for such a purpose. She 
retired discouraged, but, urged by the ser- 
vants, she decided to make a last appeal, 
this time to her sister-in-law, who must 
surely be moved by the evil that was threat- 
ening herself and her children. Taking 
some of the head servants with her, she 
went to her sister and presented the case. 
This was her last resort, and she clung to 
her forlorn hope longer than many would 
have done, the servants adding their argu- 
ments to her impassioned appeals, only to 
find out after all that the steadfast sister 
could not be moved, and that she would 
not propitiate the horse's spirit, or allow 
money to be used for such a purpose. She 
gave it up then, and sat down to await the 
fate of her doomed house, doubtless won- 
dering much and sighing often over the 
foolish skepticism of her near relatives, 
and wishing that the rationalistic tenden- 
cies of the time would take a less danger- 
ous form than the neglecting of the plainest 
precautions for life and health. The fate 
has not yet come, and now at last Go In- 
kyo Sama seems to have resigned herself 
to the belief that it has been averted from 
the heads of the dear ones by a power un- 
known to the fortune-teller. 



286 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

Beside these callings, there are other 
employments which are not regarded as 
wholly respectable by either Japanese or 
foreigners. The geisha ya, or establish- 
ments where dancing-girls are trained, and 
let out by the day or evening to tea-houses 
or private parties, are usually managed by 
women. At these establishments little 
girls are taken, sometimes by contract with 
their parents, sometimes adopted by the 
proprietors of the house, and from very 
early youth are trained not only in the art 
of dancing, but are taught singing and 
sam&era- playing, all the etiquette of serv- 
ing and entertaining guests, and whatever 
else goes to make a girl charming to the 
opposite sex. When thoroughly taught, 
they form a valuable investment, and well 
repay the labor spent upon them, for a 
popular geisha commands a good price 
everywhere, and has her time overcrowded 
with engagements. A Japanese entertain- 
ment is hardly regarded as co.mplete with- 
out geishas in attendance, and their dan- 
cing, music, and graceful service at supper 
form a charming addition to an evening 
of enjoyment at a tea-house. It is these 
geishas, too, who at matsuri are hired to 



LIFE IN THE CITIES. 287 

march in quaint uniforms in the proces- 
sion, or, borne aloft on great dashi, dance 
for the benefit of the admiring crowds. 

The Japanese dances are charmingly 
graceful and modest ; the swaying of the 
body and limbs, the artistic management 
of the flowing draperies, the variety of 
themes and costumes of the different 
dances, all go to make an entertainment 
by geishas one of the pleasantest of Jap- 
anese enjoyments. Sometimes, in scarlet 
and yellow robes, the dainty maidens imi- 
tate, with their supple bodies, the dance of 
the maple leaves as they are driven hither 
and thither in the autumn wind ; some- 
times, with tucked-up kimonos and jaunty 
red petticoats, they play the part of little 
country girls carrying their eggs to market 
in the neighboring village. Again, clad in 
armor, they simulate the warlike gestures 
and martial stamp of some of the old-time 
heroes ; or, with whitened faces and hoary 
locks, they perform with rake and broom 
the dance of the good old man and old 
woman who play so prominent a part in 
Japanese pictures. And then, wheu the 
dance is over, and all are bewitched with 
their grace and beauty, they descend to 



288 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

the supper-room and ply their temporary 
employers with the sake bottle, laughing 
and jesting the while, until there is little 
wonder if the young men at the entertain- 
ment drink more than is good for them, 
and leave the tea-house at last thoroughly 
tipsy, and enslaved by the bright eyes and 
merry wits of some of the Hebes who have 
beguiled them through the evening. 

The geishas unfortunately, though fair, 
are frail. In their system of education, 
manners stand higher than morals, and 
many a geisha gladly leaves the dancing in 
the tea-houses to become the concubine of 
some wealthy Japanese or foreigner, think- 
ing none the worse of herself for such a 
business arrangement, and going cheer- 
fully back to her regular work, should 
her contract be unexpectedly ended. The 
geisha is not necessarily bad, but there is 
in her life much temptation to evil, and 
little stimulus to do right, so that, where 
one lives blameless, many go wrong, and 
drop below the margin of respectability al- 
together. Yet so fascinating, bright, and 
lively are these geishas that many of them 
have been taken by men of good posi- 
tion as wives, and are now the heads of 



LIFE IN THE CITIES. 289 

the most respectable homes. Without 
true education or morals, but trained 
thoroughly in all the arts and accomplish- 
ments that please, — witty, quick at repar- 
tee, pretty, and always well dressed, — the 
geisha has proved a formidable rival for 
the demure, quiet maiden of good family, 
who can only give her husband an unsul- 
lied name, silent obedience, and faithful 
service all her life. The freedom of the 
present age, as shown in the chapter on 
" Marriage and Divorce," and as seen in 
the choice of such wives, has presented 
this great problem to the thinking women 
of Japan. If the wives of the leaders in 
Japan are to come from among such a 
class of women, something must be done, 
and clone quickly, for the sake of the future 
of Japan ; either to raise the standards of 
the men in regard to women, or to change 
the old system of education for girls. A 
liberal education, and more freedom in 
early life for women, has been suggested, 
and is now being tried, but the problem of 
the geisha and her fascination is a deep 
one in Japan. 

Below the geisha in respectability stands 
the joro, or licensed prostitute. Every 



290 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

city in Japan has its disreputable quarter, 
where the various joroya, or licensed houses 
of prostitution, are situated. The supervi- 
sion that the government exercises over 
these places is extremely rigid ; the effort 
is made, by licensing and regulating them, 
to minimize the evils that must flow from 
them. The proprietors of the joroya do 
everything in their power to make their 
houses, grounds, and employees attractive, 
and, to the unsuspecting foreigner, this 
portion of the city seems often the pleas- 
antest and most respectable. A joro need 
never be taken for a respectable woman, 
for her dress is distinctive, and a stay of 
a short time in Japan is long enough to 
teach even the most obtuse that the obi, or 
sash, tied in front instead of behind, is one 
of the badges of shame. But though the 
occupation of the joro is altogether disrep- 
utable, — though the prostitute quarter is 
the spot to which the police turn for in- 
formation in regard to criminals and law- 
breakers, a sort of a trap into which, sooner 
or later, the offender against the law is 
sure to fall, — Japanese public opinion, 
though recognizing the evil as a great one, 
does not look upon the professional prosti- 



LIFE IN THE CITIES. 291 

tute with the loathing which she inspires 
in Christian countries. The reason for this 
lies, not solely in the lower moral stand- 
ards although it is true that sins of this 
character are regarded much more leni- 
ently in Japan than in England or America. 
The reason lies very largely in the fact 
that these women are seldom free agents. 
Many of them are virtually slaves, sold in 
childhood to the keepers of the houses in 
which they work, and trained, amid the 
surroundings of the joroya, for the life 
which is the only life they have ever known. 
A few may have sacrificed themselves 
freely but reluctantly for those whom they 
love, and by their revolting slavery may be 
earning the means to keep their dear ones 
from starvation or disgrace. Many are the 
Japanese romances that are woven about 
the virtuous joro, who is eventually re- 
warded by finding, even in the joroya, a 
lover who is willing to raise her again to a 
life of respectability, and make her a happy 
wife and the mother of children. Such 
stories must necessarily lower the standard 
of morals in regard to chastity, but in a 
country in which innocent romance has 
little room for development, the imagina- 



292 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

tion must find its materials where it can. 
These joroya give employment to thou- 
sands of women throughout the country, 
but in few cases do the women seek that 
employment, and more openings in respec- 
table directions, together with a change in 
public opinion securing to every woman 
the right to her own person, would tend to 
diminish the number of victims that these 
institutions yearly draw into their devour- 
ing current. 

Innocent and reputable amusements are 
many aud varied in the cities. We have 
already mentioned incidentally the thea- 
tre as one of the favorite diversions of the 
people ; and though it has never been re- 
garded as a very refined amusement, it has 
done and is doing much for the educa- 
tion of the lower classes in the history and 
spirit of former times. Regular plays were 
never performed in the presence of the 
Emperor and his court, or the Shogun and 
his nobles, but the No dance was the only 
dramatic amusement of the nobility. This 
No is an ancient Japanese theatrical per- 
formance, more, perhaps, like the Greek 
drama than anything in our modern life. 
All the movements of the actors are meas- 



LIFE IN THE CITIES. 293 

ured and conventionalized, speech is a poet- 
ical recitative, the costumes are stiff and 
antique, masks are much used, and a chorus 
seated upon the stage chants audible com- 
ments upon the various situations. This 
alone, the most ancient and classical of 
Japanese theatrical performances, is con- 
sidered worthy of the attention of the Em- 
peror and the nobility, and takes the place 
with them of the more vulgar and realistic 
plays which delight common people. 

The regular theatre preserves in many 
ways the life and costumes of old Japan, 
and the details of dress and scenery are 
most carefully studied. The actors are usu- 
ally men, though there are "women thea- 
tres " in which all the parts are performed 
by women. In no case are the redes taken 
by both sexes upon one stage. As the per- 
formances last all day, from ten or eleven 
in the forenoon until eight or nine in the 
evening, going to the theatre means much 
more than a few hours of entertainment 
after the day's work is over. A lunch and 
dinner, with innumerable light edibles be- 
tween, go to make up the usual bill of fare 
for a day at the play, and tea-houses in the 
neighborhood of the theatre provide the 



294 JAPANESE GIELS AND WOMEN. 

necessary meals, a room to take them in, a 
resting-place between the acts, and what- 
ever tea, cakes, and other refreshments 
may be ordered. These latter eatables are 
served by the attendants of the tea-house 
in the theatre boxes while the play is in 
progress, and the playgoers eat and smoke 
all day long through roaring farce or gori- 
est tragedy. 

Similar to the theatre in many ways are 
the public halls, where professional story- 
tellers, the hanashika, night after night, 
relate long stories to crowded audiences, as 
powerfully and vividly as the best trained 
elocutionist. Each gesture, and each mod- 
ulation of the voice, is studied as care- 
fully as are those of the actors. Many charm- 
ing tales are told of old Japan, and even 
Western stories have found their way to 
these assemblies. A long story is often 
continued from night to night until fin- 
ished. Unfortunately, the class of people 
who patronize these places is low, and the 
moral tone of some of the stories is pitched 
accordingly ; but the best of the story-tell- 
ers — those who have talent and reputa- 
tion — are often invited to come to enter- 
tainments given at private houses, to amuse 



LIFE IN THE CITIES. 295 

a large company by their eloquence or mim- 
icry. 

This is a very favorite entertainment, 
and the hanashika has so perfected the art 
of imitation that he can change in a mo- 
ment from the tones of a child to those of 
an old woman. Solemn and sad subjects 
are touched upon, as well as merry and 
bright things, and he never fails to make 
his audience weep or laugh, according to 
his theme, and well merits the applause he 
always receives at the end. 

The hanami, or picnic to famous places 
to view certain flowers as they bloom in 
their season, though not belonging strictly 
to city life, forms one of the greatest of the 
pleasures of city people. The river Su- 
mida, on which Tokyo is situated, has lin- 
ing its eastern shore for some miles the 
famous cherry-trees of Japan, with their 
large, double pint blossoms, and when, in 
April and May, these flowers are in their 
perfection, great crowds of sightseers flock 
to Mukojima to enjoy the blossoms under 
the trees. The river is crowded with pic- 
nic parties in boats. Every tea-house along 
the banks is full of guests, and the little 
stalls and resting-places on the way find a 



296 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

quick sale for fruit, confectionery, and light 
lunches. Sake is often too freely imbibed 
by the merrymakers, whose flushed faces 
show, when returning homeward, how their 
day was spent. There is much quiet en- 
joyment, too, of the lovely blossoms, the 
broad, calm river, and the gayly dressed 
crowds. Hundreds and thousands of visit- 
ors crowd to the suburban places about 
Tokyo, — to Uyeno Park for its cherry and 
peach blossoms, Kame'ido for the plum and 
wistaria, Oji for its famous maple-trees, 
and many others, each noted for some spe- 
cial beauty. Dango Zaka has its own pe- 
culiar attraction, the famous chrysanthe- 
mum dolls. These ingenious figures are 
arranged so as to form tableaux, — scenes 
from history or fiction well known to all 
the people. They are of life size, and the 
faces, hands, and feet are made of some 
composition, and closely resemble life in 
every detail. But the curious thing in 
these tableaux is that the scenery, whether 
it be the representation of a waterfall, rocks, 
or bushes, the animals, and the dresses of 
the figures are made entirely of chrysan- 
themum twigs, leaves, and flowers, not cut 
and woven in, as at the first glance they 



LIFE IN THE 


CITIES. 




297 


seem to be, — so closely 


are the le 


aves 


and 


flowers bound together 


to make 


the flat 


surface of different objects, — but alive 


and 


growing" on the plants. 


It is impossible 


to tell where the roots i 


md stems 


are 


hid- 


den, for nothing is visible but 


(for 


ex- 



ample) the white spray and greenish shad- 
ows of a waterfall, or the parti- colored fig- 
ures in a young girl's dress. But, should 
it be the visitor's good fortune to watch the 
repairing of one of these lifelike images, he 
will find that the entire body is a frame 
woven of split bamboo, within which the 
plants are placed, their roots packed in 
damp earth and bound about with straw, 
while their leaves and flowers are pulled 
through the basket frame and woven into 
whatsoever pattern the artistic eye and 
skillful fingers of the gardener may select. 
A roof of matting shields each group from 
the sun by day, and a slight sprinkling 
every night serves to keep the plants fresh 
for nearly a month, and the flowers con- 
tinue their blooming during that time, as 
calmly as if in perfectly natural positions. 
Each of the gardeners of the neighborhood 
has his own little show, containing several 
tableaux, the entrance to which is guarded 



298 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

by an officious gate-keeper, who shouts out 
the merits of his particular groups of fig- 
ures, and forces his show-bills upon the 
passer-by, in the hope of securing the two 
sen admission fee which is required for 
each exhibit. 

And so, amid the shopping, the festivals, 
the amusements of the great cities, the 
women find their lives varied in many ways. 
Their holidays from home duties are spent 
amid these enjoyments; and if they have 
not the out-of-door employments, the long 
walks up the mountains, the days spent in 
tea-picking, in harvesting, in all the varied 
work that comes to the country woman, 
the dwellers in the city have no lack of 
sights and sounds to amuse and interest 
them, and would not often care to exchange 
their lot for the freer and hardier life of 
the rustic. 



CHAPTER XI. 

DOMESTIC SERVICE . 

To the foreigner, upou his arrival in Ja- 
pan, the status of household servants is at 
first a source of much perplexity. There 
is a freedom in their relations with the 
families that they serve, that in this coun- 
try would be regarded as impudence, and 
an independence of action that, in many 
cases, seems to take the form of direct dis- 
obedience to orders. From the steward of 
your household, who keeps your accounts, 
makes your purchases, and manages your 
affairs, to your jinrikisha man or groom, 
every servant in your establishment does 
what is right iu his own eyes, and after the 
manner that he thinks best. Mere blind 
obedience to orders is not regarded as a 
virtue in a Japanese servant ; he must do 
his own thinking, and, if he cannot grasp 
the reason for your order, that order will 
not be carried out. Housekeeping in Japan 
is frequently the despair of the thrifty 



300 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN, 

American housewife, who has been accus- 
tomed in her own country to be the head 
of every detail of household work, leaving 
to her servants only the mechanical labor 
of the hands. She begins by showing her 
Oriental help the work to be done, and 
just the way in which she is accustomed to 
having it done at home, and the chances 
are about one in a hundred that her servant 
will carry out her instructions. In the 
ninety-nine other cases, he will accomplish 
the desired result, but by means totally dif- 
ferent from those to which the American 
housekeeper is accustomed. If the house- 
wife is one of the worrying kind, who cares 
as much about the way in which the thing 
is done as about the accomplished result, 
the chances are that she will wear herself 
out in a fruitless endeavor to make her 
servants do things in her own way, and 
will, when she returns to America, assure 
you that Japanese servants are the most 
idle, stupid, and altogether worthless lot 
that it was ever her bad fortune to have 
to do with. But on the other hand, if the 
lady of the house is one who is willing to 
give general orders, and then sit down and 
wait until the work is done before criticis- 



DOMESTIC SEE VICE. 301 

ing it, she will find that by some means or 
other the work will be accomplished and 
her desire will be carried out, provided only 
that her servants see a reason for getting 
the thing done. And as she finds that 
her domestics will take responsibility upon 
themselves, and will work, not only with 
their hands, but with the will and intellect 
in her service, she soon yields to their pro- 
tecting and thoughtful care for herself and 
her interests, and, when she returns to 
America, is loud in her praises of the com- 
petence and devotion of her Japanese ser- 
vants. Even in the treaty ports, where 
contact with foreigners has given to the 
Japanese attendants the silent and re- 
pressed air that we regard as the standard 
manner for a servant, they have not re- 
signed their right of private judgment, but, 
if faithful and honest, seek the best good 
of their employer, even if his best good 
involves disobedience of his orders. This 
characteristic of the Japanese servant is 
aggravated when he is in the employment 
of foreigners, for the simple reason that he 
is apt to regard the foreigner as a species 
of imbecile, who must be cared for tenderly 
because he is quite incompetent to care for 



302 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

himself, but whose fancies must not be 
too much regarded. Of the relations of 
foreign employers and Japanese servants 
much might be said, but our business is 
with the position of the servants in a Jap- 
anese household. 

Under the old feudal system, the servants 
of every family were its hereditary retain- 
ers, and from generation to generation de- 
sired no higher lot than personal service 
in the family to which they belonged. The 
principle of loyalty to the family interests 
was the leading principle in the lives of the 
servants, just as loyalty to the daimio was 
the highest duty of the samurai. Long 
and intimate knowledge of the family his- 
tory and traits of character rendered it pos- 
sible for the retainer to work intelligently 
for his master, and do independently for 
him many things without orders. The ser- 
vant in many cases knew his master and 
his master's interests as well as the master 
himself, or even better, and must act by 
the light of his own knowledge in cases 
where his master was ignorant or misin- 
formed. One can easily see how ties of 
good-fellowship and sympathy would arise 
between masters and servants, how a com* 



DOMESTIC SERVICE. 303 

niuiiity of interest would exist, so that the 
good of the master and his family would be 
the condition for the good of the servant 
and his family. In America, where the 
relation between servant and employer is 
usually a simple business arrangement, each 
giving certain specified considerations and 
nothing more, the relation of servant to 
master is shorn of all sentiment and af- 
fection ; the servant's interests are quite 
apart from those of his employer, and his 
main object is to get the specified work 
done and obtain more time for himself, and 
sooner or later to leave the despised occu- 
pation of domestic service for some higher 
and more independent calling. In Japan, 
where faithful service of a master was re- 
garded as a calling worthy of absorbing 
any one's highest abilities through a life- 
time, the position of a servant was not 
menial or degrading, but might be higher 
than that of the farmer, merchant, or arti- 
san. Whether the position was a high or a 
low one depended, not so much on the work 
done, as the person for whom it was done, 
and the servant of a daimio or high rank 
samurai was worthy of more honor, and 
might be of far better birth, than the inde- 



304 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

pendent merchant or artisan. As the for- 
mer feudal system is yet within the mem- 
ory of many of the present generation, 
and its feelings still alive in Japan, much 
of the old sentiment remains, even with 
the merely hired domestics in a household 
of the present day. The servant, by his 
own master, is addressed by name, with no 
title of respect, is treated as an inferior, 
and spoken to in the language used toward 
inferiors ; but to all others he is a person 
to be treated with respect, — to be bowed 
to profoundly, addressed by the title San, 
and spoken to in the politest of language. 
You make a call upon a Japanese house- 
hold, and the servant who admits you will 
expect to exchange the formal salutations 
with you. When you are ushered into 
the reception-room, should the lady of the 
house be absent, the head servants will not 
only serve you with tea and refreshments 
and offer you hospitalities in their mistress's 
name, but may, if no one else be there, sit 
with you in the parlor, entertaining you 
with conversation until the return of the 
hostess. The servants of the household are 
by no means ignored socially, as they are 
with us, but are always recognized and sa- 



DOMESTIC SERVICE. . 305 

luted by visitors as they pass into and out 
of the room, and are free to join in the con- 
versation of their betters, should they see 
any place where it is possible that they may 
shed light on the subject discussed. But 
though given this liberty of speech, treated 
with much consideration, and having some- 
times much responsibility, servants do not 
forget their places in the household, and 
do not seem to be bold or out of place. In- 
deed, the manners of some of them would 
seem, to any one but a Japanese, to denote 
a lack of proper self-respect, — an excess of 
humility, or an affectation of it. 

In explaining to my scholars, who were 
reading "Little Lord Fauntleroy " in Eng- 
lish, a passage where a footman is spoken 
of as having nearly disgraced himself by 
laughing at some quaint saying of theyoung 
lord, my little peeresses were amazed beyond 
measure to learn that in Europe and Amer- 
ica a servant is expected never to show any 
interest in, or knowledge of, the conversa- 
tion of his betters, never to speak unless 
addressed, and never to smile under any 
circumstances. Doubtless, in their shrewd 
little brains, they formed their opinion of 
a civilization imposing such barbarous re- 
straints upon one class of persons. 



306 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

The women servants in a family are in 
position more like the self-respecting, old- 
fashioned New England " help " than they 
are like the modern " girl." They do not 
work all day while the mistress sits in the 
parlor doing nothing, and then, when their 
clay's work is done, go out, anxious to for- 
get, in the society of their friends, the 
drudgery which only the necessity for self- 
support and the high wages to be earned 
render tolerable. As has been explained 
in a previous chapter, the mistress of the 
house — be she priucess or peasant — is 
herself the head servant, and only gives up 
to her helpers the part of the labor which 
she has not the time or strength to per- 
form. Certain menial duties toward her 
husband and children, every Japanese wife 
and mother must do herself, and would 
scorn to delegate to any other woman ex- 
cept in case of absolute necessity. Thus 
there is not that gap between mistress and 
maid that exists in our days among the 
women of this country. The servants work 
with their mistress, helping her in every 
possible way, and are treated as responsible 
members of the household, if not of the 
family itself. 



DOMESTIC SERVICE. 307 

At evening", when the wooden shutters 
are slid into their places around the porch 
and the lamps are lighted, the family 
gather together in the sitting-room around 
the liibachi to talk, free from interruption, 
for no visitor conies at such an hour to 
disturb the family circle. The mother will 
have her sewing or work, the children will 
study their lessons, and the others will 
talk or amuse themselves in various ways. 
Then, perhaps, the maidservants, having 
finished their tasks about the house, will 
join the circle, — always at a respectful dis- 
tance, — will do their sewing and listen 
to the talk, and often join in the conver- 
sation, but in the most humble manner. 
Perhaps, at times, some one more ambi- 
tious than the others will briiig in a book, 
and ask the meaning of a word or a phrase 
she has met in studying, and little helps of 
this kind are given most willingly. 

We have seen that the ladies-in-waiting 
in the houses of the nobles are daughters 
of samurai, who gladly serve in these posi- 
tions for the sake of the honor of such 
service, and the training they receive in 
noble houses. Iu a somewhat similar way, 
places in the homes of those of distinction 



308 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

or skill in any art or profession are held in 
great demand among" the Japanese ; and a 
prominent poet, scholar, physician, or pro- 
fessional man of any kind is often asked by 
anxious parents to take their sons under 
his own roof, so that they may be under 
his influence, and receive the benefits of 
stay in such an honorable house. The pa- 
rents who thus send their children may 
not be of low rank at all, but are usually 
not sufficiently well-to-do to spend much 
money in the education of their children. 
The position that such boys occupy in 
the household is a curious one. They are 
called Sho-sei, meaning students, and stu- 
dents they usually are, spending all their 
leisure moments and their evenings in 
study. They are never treated as infe- 
riors, except in age and experience; they 
may or may not eat with the family, and 
are always addressed with respect. On 
the other hand, they always feel them- 
selves to be dependents, and must be will- 
ing without wages to work in any capacity 
about the house, for the sake of picking up 
what crumbs of knowledge may fall to them 
from their master's table. Service is not 
absolutely demanded of them, but they are 



DOMESTIC SERVICE. 309 

expected to do what will pay for their 
board, and do not regard menial work as 
below them, performing cheerfully all that 
the master may require of them. 

In this way, a man of moderate means 
can help along many poor young men in 
whom he may feel interested, and in re- 
turn be saved expense about his household 
work ; and the students, while always con- 
siderately treated, are able without great 
expense to study, — often even to prepare 
for college, or get a start in one of the 
professions, for they have many leisure 
moments to devote to their books. Many 
prominent men of the present day have 
been students of this class, and are now in 
their turn helping the younger generation. 

The boys that one sees in shops, or, with 
workmen of all kinds, helping in many 
little ways, are not hirelings, but appren- 
tices, who hope some day to hold just as 
good positions as their masters, and expect 
to know as much, if not a great deal more. 
At the shop or in the home, they not only 
help in the trades or occupations they are 
learning, but are willing to do any kind of 
menial work for their master or his fam- 
ily in return for what they receive from 



310 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

him; for they do not pay for their board 
nor for what they are taught. Even when 
the age of education is already past, grown 
men aud women are willing to leave quite 
independent positions to shine with re- 
flected glory as servants of persons of high 
rank or distinction. " The servant is not 
greater than his master " in Japan ; but if 
the master is great, the servant is consid- 
erably greater than the man without a 
master. 

In a country like Japan, where one 
finds but few wealthy people, there may be 
cause for wonder at the large households, 
where there are so many servants. There 
will be often as many as ten or more ser- 
vants in a home where, in other ways, lux- 
ury and wealth are not displayed. In the 
oku, or the part of the house where the 
lady of the house stays, are found her own 
maid, and women who help in the work 
about the house, sew in their leisure mo- 
ments, and are the higher servants of the 
family; there are also the children's at- 
tendants, often one for each child, as well 
as the waiting women for the Go Inkyo 
Sama. In the kitchen are the cooks and 
their assistants, the lower servants, and usu* 



DOMESTIC SERVICE. 311 

ally one or more jinrikisha men, who be- 
long to the house, and, if this be the home 
of an official who keeps horses, a betto for 
each animal. There are also gardeners, 
errand-boys, and gate-keepers to guard the 
large yasliikis. Such a retinue would seem 
a great deal to maintain ; but servants' 
wages are so low, and the cost of living is 
so small, that in this matter Japanese can 
afford to be luxurious. Three or four dol- 
lars will cover the cost of food for a month 
for one person, and women servants ex- 
pect only a few dollars in wages for that 
time. The men receive much higher pay, 
but at the most it is less than what a good 
cook receives in many homes here. The 
wages do not include occasional presents, 
especially those given semi-annually, — a 
small sum of money, or dress material of 
some kind, — which servants expect, and 
which, of course, are no small item in the 
family expense. 

Homes which maintain a great deal of 
style need many servants, for they expect 
to work 6 less than the American servant, 
and are less able to hurry and rush through 
their work ; and they do not desire, if they 
could, to take life so hard, even to earn 



312 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

greater pay. The family, too, in many cases 
are used to having plenty of hands to do 
the work; the ladies are much less inde- 
pendent, and life has more formalities and 
red tape in Japan than in America. A 
great deal of the shopping is clone hy ser- 
vants, who are sent out on errands and 
often do important business. Maids ac- 
company their mistresses to make visits ; 
servants go with parties to the theatre, to 
picnics, or on journeys, and these expedi- 
tions are as heartily enjoyed by them as by 
their masters. It is expected, especially of 
ladies and persons of high rank, that the 
details of the journey, the bargaining with 
coolies, the hiring of vehicles, and paying 
of bills, be left in charge of some manser- 
vant, who is entirely responsible, and who 
makes all the bargains, arranges the jour- 
ney for his employer, and takes charge of 
everything, — even to the amount of fees 
given along the way. 

Perhaps the highest positions of service 
now — positions honorable anywhere in 
Japan — are held by those who remain of 
the old retainers of daimios, and who 
regulate the households of the nobles. 
Such men must have good education, and 



DOMESTIC SERVICE. 313 

good judgment ; for much is left in their 
hands, and they are usually gentlemen, 
who would be known as such anywhere. 
They are the stewards of the household, 
the secretaries of their masters ; keep all 
accounts, for which they are responsible, 
and attend to the minor affairs of etiquette, 
— the latter no trifling duty in a noble's 
home. It is they who accompany the no- 
bles on their journeys, — regulate, advise, 
and attend to the little affairs of life, of 
which the master may be ignorant and 
cares not to learn. They are the last of 
the crowds of feudal retainers, who once 
filled castle and yashiki, and are now scat- 
tered throughout the length and breadth 
of the kingdom. 

The higher servants in the household 
must be always more or less trained in eti- 
quette, and are expected to look neat and 
tidy ; to serve guests with tea and refresh- 
ments, without any orders to that effect ; 
and to use their judgment in little house- 
hold affairs, and thus help the lady of the 
house. They are usually clever with their 
fingers, and can sew neatly. When their 
mistress goes out they assist her to dress, 
and only a few words from her will be 



314 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

necessary for them to have everything in 
readiness, from her sash and dress to all 
the little belongings of a lady's costume. 
Many a bright, ^uick servant is found who 
will understand and guess her mistress's 
wants without being told each detail, and 
these not only serve with their hands, but 
think for their employers. 

Much less is expected of the lower ser- 
vants, who belong to the kitchen, and have 
less to do with the family in general, and 
little or no personal contact with their 
masters. They perform their round of du- 
ties with little responsibility, and are re- 
garded as much lower in the social scale 
of servants, of which we have seen there 
are many degrees. 

The little gozen-taki, or rice-cook, who 
works all day in the kitchen, may be a fat, 
red-cheeked, frowsy-haired country girl, — 
patient, hard-working, and humble-minded, 
— willing to pother about all day with her 
kettles aud pans, and sit up half the night 
over her own sewing, or the study of the 
often unfamiliar art of reading and writ- 
ing; but entirely unacquainted with the 
details of etiquette, a knowledge of which 
is a necessity to the higher servants, — 



DOMESTIC SERVICE. 315 

sometimes even thrown into an agony of 
diffidence should it become necessary to 
appear before master or mistress. 

Some of the customs of the household, 
in regard to servants, are quite striking to 
a foreigner. When the master of the house 
starts out each morning, besides the wife 
and children who see him off, all the ser- 
vants who are not especially occupied — a 
goodly number, sometimes — come to the 
front door and bow down to bid him good- 
by. On his return, also, when the noise 
of the kuruma is heard, and the shout of 
the men, who call out " kaeri ! " when 
near the house, the servants go out to 
greet him, and bowing low speak the cus- 
tomary words of salutation. To a greater 
or less degree, the same is done to every 
member of the family, the younger mem- 
bers, however, receiving a smaller share 
of the attention than their elders. 

When, as very often happens, a guest 
staying for any length of time in a family, 
or a frequent visitor, gives a servant a pres- 
ent of money or any trifle, the servant, after 
thanking the donor, takes the white paper 
bundle to the mistress of the house, and 
shows it to her, expressing his gratitude 



316 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

to her for the gift, and also asking her to 
thank the giver. This, of course, is al- 
ways done, for a gift to a servant is as 
much of a favor to the mistress as a pres- 
ent to a child is to its mother. 

When a servant wishes to leave a family, 
she rarely goes to her mistress and states 
that she is dissatisfied with her position, 
and that some hetter chance has been of- 
fered her. Such a natural excuse never 
occurs to the Japanese servant, unless he 
be a jinrikisha man or' betto, who may not 
know how to do better ; for it is a very 
rude way of leaving service. The high- 
minded maid will proceed very differently. 
A few days' leave of absence to visit home 
will be asked and usually granted, for Jap- 
anese servants never have any settled time 
to take holiday. At the end of the given 
time the mistress will begin to wonder 
what has become of the girl, who has failed 
to return ; and the lady will make up her 
mind she will not let her go again so read- 
ily. Just when she has a sharp reproof 
ready, a messenger or letter will arrive, 
with some good excuse, couched in most 
polite and humble terms. Sometimes it 
will be that she has found herself too weak 



DOMESTIC SERVICE. 317 

for service, or that work at home, or the 
illness of some member of the family, de- 
tains her, so that she is not able to come 
back at present. The excuse is under- 
stood and accepted as final, and another 
servant is sought for and obtained. After 
several weeks have passed, very likely after 
entering a new place, the old servant will 
turn up some day, express her thanks for 
all past kindnesses and regrets at not re- 
turning in time, will take her pay and her 
bundles, and disappear forever. 

Even when servants come on trial for a 
few days, they often go away nominally to 
fetch their belongings, or make arrange- 
ments to return, but the lady of the house 
does not know whether the woman is sat- 
isfied or not. If she is not, her refusal is 
always brought by a third person. If the 
mistress, on her side, does not wish to hire 
the girl, she will not tell her so to her 
face, but will send word at this time to pre- 
vent her coming. Such is the etiquette in 
these matters of mistress and maid. 

Only by a multiplicity of details is it 
possible to give much idea of the position 
of servants in a Japanese house, and even 
then the result arrived at is that the posi- 



818 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

tions of what we would call domestic ser- 
vants vary so greatly in honor and respon- 
sibility that it is almost impossible to draw 
any general conclusions upon this subject. 
We have seen that there is no distinct 
servile class in Japan, and that a person's 
social status is not altered by the fact that 
he serves in a menial capacity, provided 
that service be of one above him in rank 
and not below him. This is largely the 
result of the grading of society upon other 
lines than those on which our social dis- 
tinctions are founded, and partly the result 
of the fact that women, of whatever class, 
are servauts so far as persons of the oppo- 
site sex in their own class are concerned. 
The women of Japan to-day form the great 
servile class, and, as they are also the 
wives and mothers of those whom they 
serve, they are treated, of course, with a 
certain consideration and respect never 
given to a mere servant ; and through 
them, all domestic service is elevated. 

There are two employments which I 
have mentioned among those of domestic 
servants because they would be so classed 
by us, but which in Japan rank among 
the trades. The jinrikisha man and the 



DOMESTIC SERVICE. 319 

groom belong, as a rule, to a certain class 
at the bottom of the social ladder, and no 
samurai would think of entering either of 
these occupations, except under stress of 
severest poverty. The bettos, or grooms, 
are a hereditary class and a regular guild, 
and have a reputation, among both Jap- 
anese and foreigners, as a betting, gam- 
bling, cheating, good-for-nothing lot. An 
honest betto is a rare phenomenon. The 
jinrilcisha men are, many of them, sons of 
peasants, who come to the cities for the 
sake of earning more money, or leading a 
livelier life than can be found in the lit- 
tle thatched cottage among the rice-fields. 
Few of them are married, or have homes 
of their own. Many of them drink and 
gamble, and sow their wild oats in all pos- 
sible ways ; but they are a well-meaning, 
fairly honest, happy-go-lucky set, who lead 
hard lives of exhausting labor, and endure 
long hours of exposure to heat and cold, 
rain, snow, and blinding sunshine, not 
only with little complaint or grumbling, 
but with absolute cheerfulness and hilar- 
ity. A strong, fast jinrikisha man takes 
great pride in his strength and speed. It 
is a point of honor with him to pull his 



320 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

passenger up the steepest and most slip- 
pery of hills, and never to heed him if he 
expresses a desire to walk in order to save 
his man. I have had my kurumaya stoutly 
refuse, again and again, my offers to walk 
up a steep hill, even when the snow was 
so soft and slippery under his bare feet 
that he fell three times in making the 
ascent. " Dai jobu " (safe) would be his 
smiling response to all my protestations ; 
and, once in a jinrikisha, the passenger is 
entirely at the mercy of his man in all 
matters of getting into and out of the ve- 
hicle. But though the jinrikisha man is, 
for the time being, the autocrat and con- 
trolling power over his passenger, and 
though he will not obey the behests of his 
employer, except so far as they seem rea- 
sonable and in accordance with the best 
interests of all concerned, he constitutes 
himself the protector and assistant, the 
adviser and counselor, of him whom he 
serves, and gives his best thought and in- 
telligence, as well as his speed and strength, 
to the service in which he is engaged. If 
he thinks it safe, he will tear like an un- 
broken colt through the business portions 
of the city, knocking bundles out of the 



DOMESTIC SERVICE. 321 

hands of foot passengers, or even hitting 
the wayfarers themselves in a fierce dash 
through their midst, laughing gayly at 
their protests, and at threats of wrath to 
come from his helpless passenger; but 
should hint of insult or injury against hu- 
ruma, passenger, or passenger's dog fall 
upon his ears, he will drop the jinrikisha 
shafts, and administer condign punishment 
to the offender, unchecked by thoughts of 
the ever-present police, or by any terrors 
that his employer may hold over his head. 
In no other country in the world, perhaps, 
can a lady place more entire confidence in 
the honor and loyalty of her servant than 
she can in Japan in her kurumaya, whether 
he be her private servant, or one from a 
respectable stand. He may not do what 
she bids him, but that is quite a secondary 
matter. He will study her interests ; will 
remember her likes and dislikes ; will take 
a mental inventory of the various accesso- 
ries or bundles that she carries with her, 
and will never permit her to lose or forget 
one of them ; will run his legs off in her 
service, and defend her and her property 
valiantly in case of need. Of course, as 
in all classes there are different grades, 



322 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 

so there are jinriMsha men who seem to 
have sunk so low in their calling" that they 
have lost all feeling of loyalty to their em- 
ployer, and only care selfishly for the pit- 
tance they gain. Such men are often 
found in the treaty ports, eagerly seeking 
for the rich foreigner, from whom they 
can get an extra fee, and whom they re- 
gard as outside of their code of morals, 
and hence as their natural prey. Trav- 
elers, and even residents of Japan, have 
often complained of such treatment; and 
it is only after long stay in Japan, among 
the Japanese themselves, that one can tell 
what & jinriMsha man is capable of. 

If you employ one kurumaya for any 
length of time, you come to have a real 
affection for him on account of his loyal, 
faithful, cheerful service, such as we sel- 
dom find in this country except when in- 
spired by personal feeling. When you have 
ridden miles and miles, by night and by 
day, through rain and sleet and hottest 
sunshine, behind a man who has used 
every power of body and mind in your ser- 
vice, you cannot but have a strong feeling 
of affection toward him, and of pride in 
him as well. It is something the feeling 



DOMESTIC SERVICE. 323 

that one has for a good saddle-horse, but 
more developed. You rejoice, not only in 
his strength and speed, put forth so will- 
ingly in your service ; in his picturesque, 
dark blue costume with your monogram 
embroidered on the back; in his hand- 
somely turned ankles; in his black, wavy 
hair ; in his delicate hands and trim waist, 
— though these are often a source of pride 
to you, — but his skill in divining your 
wants ; his use of his tongue in your ser- 
vice; his helping out of your faltering 
Japanese with explanations which, if not 
elegant, have the merit of being easily un- 
derstood; his combats with extortionate 
shopkeepers in your behalf; his interest in 
all your doings and concerns, — remain as 
a pleasant memory, upon your return to a 
land where no man would so far forget his 
manhood as to give himself so completely 
and without reserve to the service of any 
master save Mammon. 

As old Japan, with its quaintness, its 
mediaeval flavor, its feudalism, its loyalty, 
its sense of honor, and its transcendental 
contempt for money and luxury, recedes 
into the past, and as the memories of my 
life there grow dim, two figures stand out 



324 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

more and more boldly from the fading 
background, — both, the figures of faithful 
servants. One, Yasaku, the kurumaya, a 
very Hercules, who could keep close to a 
pair of coach horses through miles of city 
streets, and who never suffered mortal jin- 
rikisha man to pass him. My champion 
in all times of danger and alarm, but a 
very autocrat in all minor matters, — his 
cheery face, his broad shoulders with their 
blue draperies, his jolly, boyish voice, and 
his dainty, delicate hands come before me 
as I write, and I wonder to what fortunate 
person he is now giving the intelligent ser- 
vice that he once gave so whole-heartedly 
to me. The other, Kaio, my maid, her 
plain little face, with its upturned eyes, 
growing, as the days went by, absolutely 
beautiful in the light of pure goodness 
that beamed from it. A Japanese Chris- 
tian, with all the Christian virtues well de- 
veloped, she became to me not only a good 
servant, doing her work with conscientious 
fidelity, but a sympathetic friend, to whom 
I turned for help in time of need ; and 
whom I left, when I returned to America, 
with a sincere sorrow in my heart at part- 
ing with one who had grown to fill so large 



DOMESTIC SERVICE. 325 

a place in my thoughts. Her little, half- 
shy, half-motherly ways toward her big for- 
eign mistress had a charm all their own. 
Her pride and delight over my progress in 
the language ; her patient efforts to make 
me understand new words, or to under- 
stand my uncouth foreign idioms; her joy, 
when at last I reached the point where a 
story told by her lips could be compre- 
hended and enjoyed, — gave a continual en- 
couragement in a task too often completely 
disheartening. 

During the last summer of my stay in 
Japan, cutting loose from all foreigners 
and foreign associations, I traveled alone 
with her through the heart of the country, 
stopping only at Japanese hotels, and car- 
rying with me no supplies to eke out the 
simple Japanese fare. Through floods and 
typhoons we journeyed. Long days of 
scorching heat or driving rain in no way 
abated her cheerfulness, or lessened her de- 
sire to do all that she could for my aid and 
comfort. Not one sad look nor impatient 
word showed a flaw in her perfect temper ; 
and if she privately made up her mind 
that I was crazy, she never by word or look 
gave a hint of her thought. Jinrikisha 



326 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 

men grumbled and gave out ; hotel-keepers 
resented the presence of my dog, or pre- 
sented extortionate bills ; but Kaio's 
good temper and tact never failed her, 
Difficulties were smoothed away ; bills were 
compromised and reduced; the dog slept 
securely by my side on a red blanket in the 
best rooms of the best hotels ; and Kaio 
smiled, told her quaint stories, amused me 
and ministered to me, as if I were her one 
object in life, though husband and chil- 
dren were far away in distant Tokyo, and 
her mother's heart yearned for her little 
ones. 



EPILOGUE. 

My task is ended. One balf of Japan, 
with its virtues and its frailties, its priv- 
ileges and its wrongs, has been brought, 
so far as my pen can bring it, within the 
knowledge of the American public. If, 
through this work, one person setting forth 
for the Land of the Rising Sun goes bet- 
ter prepared to comprehend the thoughts, 
the needs, and the virtues of the noble, 
gentle, self-sacrificing women who make 
up one half the population of the Island 
Empire, my labor will not have been in 
vain. 



INDEX. 



Adoption, 103, 112, 113, 187. 

Agility of Japanese, 13. 

Aniado, sliding wooden shutters, 
used to inclose a Japanese 
house at night, 23. 

Andon, a standing lamp inclosed 
in a paper case, 89. 

Ane" San, elder sister (San, the 
honorific), a title used by the 
younger children in a family 
in speaking to their eldest sis- 
ter, 20. 

Aoyama, 131. 

Apprentices, 309, 310. 

Art in common things, 237-239. 

Artisans, 235-239, 270. 

Babyhood, 1-17 ; bathing, 10 ; 

conditions of life, 6, 7 ; dress, 
6, 15 ; food, 10, 11 ; imperial 
babies, 8, 9 ; learning to talk, 
16 ; learning to walk, 13, 14 ; 
of lower classes, 7 ; of middle 
classes, 8 ; of nobility, 8 ; skin 
troubles, 11 ; teething, 12 ; tied 
to the back, 7, 8, 12. 

Baths, public, 10. 

Beauty, Japanese standard of, 
58 ; early loss of, 122. 

Be-be% a child's word for dress, 
16. 

Betrothal, 60. 

Betto, a groom or footman who 
cares for the horse in the sta- 
ble and runs ahead of it in the 
road, 62, 71, 311, 316, 319. 

Birth, 1. 

Breakfast, 89. 

Buddhism, 168, 240; introduc- 
tion of, 143-145. 

Buddhist funeral, 131, 132. 

Buddhist nuns, 155. 

Castles, 151, 157, 169, 171, 173, 

174, 185, 186, 192. 
Chadai, literally "tea money," 



the fee given at an inn, 251- 
253 

Cherry blossoms, 28, 146, 166, 
176, 177, 191, 295, 296. 

Childhood. See Girlhood. 

Children, Japanese compared 
with American, 19 ; intellec- 
tual characteristics of Japa- 
nese, 41. 

Chinese characters, 40. 

Chinese civilization introduced, 
142. 

Chinese code of morals, 103, 111. 

Christianity, 77, 81, 168, 206, 207. 

Chrysanthemum, 166, 296-298. 

Civilization, new, 77. 

Concubinage, 85, 111. 

Confectionery, 146. 

Confucius, 103, 168. 

Constitution, promulgation of 
the, 114, 276. 

Corea, conquest of, 139-143. 

Country and city, 278, 279. 

Court, after conquest of Corea, 
143 - 146 ; amusements, 145 ; 
costumes, 146 ; in early times, 
138, 139 ; ladies, 145, 148, 152- 
154 ; life, 138-168 ; of daimio, 
171 ; of Shogun, 170, 171 ; re- 
moval to Tokyo, 156. 

Courtship, 58. 

Crucifixion, 199, 234. 

Dai jobu, "Safe," "All right,'» 
320. 

Daimio, a member of the landed 
nobility under the feudal sys- 
tem, 169-195 ; his castles, 169, 
173 ; his courts, 171 ; his daugh- 
ters, 175, 177, 180, 182-184, 191, 
192-195 ; his journeys to Ye- 
do, 171-173 ; his retainers, 169, 
171, 173, 175, 177-179, 181, 183, 
185, 186; his wife, 175, 177, 
182, 192-195 ; seclusion of, 172- 
174. 



330 



INDEX. 



Dancing, 38,287,288. 

Dancing girls. See Geisha. 

Dango Zaka, 296. 

Dashi, a float used in festival 
processions, 275-278. 

Decency, Japanese standard of, 
255-260. 

Deformity, caused by position in 
sitting, 9. 

Divorce, among lower classes, 66, 
69, 73 ; among higher classes, 
66, 68; right of, granted to 
women, 66; right to children 
in case of, 67, 105. 

Dolls, feast of, 28-31. 

Dress, baby, 6, 15 ; court, 145, 
146 ; girl's, 15 ; in daimios' 
houses, 187, 192 ; military, of 
samurai women, 188 ; of lower 
classes, 126, 127, 128 ; of pil- 
grims, 243 ; showing age of 
wearer, 119. 

Education of girls, 37-56 ; diffi- 
culties in new system, 52-56 ; 
fault in Japanese system, 39 ; 
in old times, 37. 

Education, higher, a doubtful 
help, 79 ; effect on home life, 
77 ; producing repugnance to 
marriage, 80. 

Education of daimio's daughter, 
177-180. 

Embroidered robes, 95, 146, 188, 
192. 

Emperor, 111, 114, 134, 151-153, 
155-157, 161,164-166, 292. 

Emperors, after introduction of 
Chinese civilization, 143-145 ; 
children of, 164 ; daughters 
of, 155 ; early retirement of, 
134 ; in early times, 138 ; se- 
clusion of, 143-145, 155, 156, 
161, 169. 

Empress, 88, 115, 140, 150-168. 

Empress dowager, 152. 

Engawa, the piazza that runs 
about a Japanese house, 23. 

Etiquette, court, 153 ; in daimios' 
houses, 177-179 ; in the home, 
19, 20 ; instruction in, 46, 47 ; 
of leaving service, 316, 317 ; 
towards servants, 304, 305. 

Fairy tales, 32. 

Family, organization of, 139. 



Fancy work, 95. 

Father's relation to children, 
100. 

Festivals : of dolls, 28 ; of flow- 
ers, 27, 99, 295-297; of the 
new year, 25 ; temple, 270- 
278. 

Feudal system, 169. 

Feudal times, pictures of, 190- 
192 ; stories of, 184-187. 

Flirtation, unknown to Japanese 
girls, 34. 

Flower arrangement, 42. 

Flower painting, 47. 

Flower shows, 270-272. 

Fortune-telling, 281-285. 

Fuji, 58, 242. 

Funeral service, 131, 132. 

Games : battledore and shuttle- 
cock, 31 ; at court, 145 ; Go, 
136 ; hyaku nin ishu, 26 ; 
shogi, 136. 

Geisha, a professional dancing 
and singing girl, 286-289. 

Geisha ya, an establishment 
where geishas may be hired, 
286. 

Geta, a wooden clog, 13, 14. 

Ginza, 265. 

Haori, a coat of cotton, silk, or 

crape, worn over the kimono, 

8. 
Hara-kiri, suicide by stabbing in 

the abdomen, 201, 202. 
Haru Ko, 155-168. 
Haru, Prince, 113, 152. 
Helmin, the class of farmers, 

artisans, and merchants, 203, 

228, 229. 
Heimin, class characteristics of, 

229-240. 
Hibachi, a brazier for burning 

charcoal, 30, 72, 136, 307. 
Hideyoshi. See Toyotomi. 
Hinin, a class of paupers, 228. 
Hiyel Zan, 243. 
Holidays, 269. 
Hotels, 247-250. 
Hotel-keepers, 280, 281. 
Household duties, training for, 

21. 
Hyaku nin ishu, "Poems of a 

hundred poets," the name of a 

game, 26. 



INDEX 



331 



Instruction in etiquette, 46 ; in 
flower arranging, 42 ; in flower 
painting, 47 ; in music, 41 ; in 
reading and writing, 38 ; in tea 
ceremony, 44. 

Inkyo, a place of retirement, 
the home of a person who has 
retired from active life, 136. 

Inu, a dog, 250. 

1st*, 231. 

Iwafuji, 210-213. 

Iwakura, Prince, 157. 

Iya, a child's word, denoting dis- 
like or negation, 16. 

Iyemitsu, 171, 172. 

Iye"yasu, 169. 

"Japan Mail," 159. 
Japanese language, 16, 40, 179. 
Japanese literature, 147-150. 
Jimmu Tenno, 138. 
Jingu Kogo, 139-143, 147. 
Jinrikisha, a light carriage 

drawn by one or more men, and 

which will hold one or two 

persons, 26, 70, 92, 268, 272, 

320 321. 
Jinrikisha' man, 26, 62, 69, 92, 

108, 270, 279, 299, 316, 319- 

324. 
Joro, a prostitute, 289-292. 
Joroya, a house of prostitution, 

290-292. 

Kameldo, 296. 

Kakemono, a hanging scroll, 44, 
147, 238. 

Katsuobushi, a kind of dried 
fish, 5. 

Kimono, a long gown with wide 
sleeves, and open in front, 
worn by Japanese of all classes, 
7, 94, 188, 192, 287. 

Kisses, 36. 

Knees, flexibility of, 9. 

Kotatsu, a charcoal fire in a bra- 
zier or a small fireplace in the 
floor, over which a wooden 
frame is set, and the whole 
covered by a quilt, 33. 

Koto, a musical instrument, 42. 

Kug(5, the court nobility, 155, 
170. 

Kura, a fireproof storehouse, 147, 
171, 173. 

Kuruma, a wheeled vehicle of 



any kind, used as synonymous 
with jinrikisha, which see. 

Kurumaya, one who pulls a kuru- 
ma. See Jinrikisha man. 

Kurushima, 203. 

Kyoto, 156, 171, 240, 241. 

Ladies, court, 145, 148, 152-154 ; 

of daimios' families, 175-180, 

182-184. 
Ladies-in-waiting, 180-182, 224. 
Loyalty, 33, 75, 197, 206-208,217, 

302-304. 

Mam ma, a baby's word for rice 
or food, 16. 

Manners of children, 18. 

Marriage, 57-83 ; ceremony, 61, 
63 ; feast, 63 ; festivities after, 
63, 64 ; guests, 63 ; presents, 
62 ; registration, 65 ; to yoshii, 
104 ; trousseau, 61. 

Marumagi, a style of arranging 
the hair of married ladies, 119. 

Matsuri, a festival, usually in 
honor of some god, 274-278. 

Meiji (Enlightened Rule), the 
name of the era that began 
with the accession of the pres- 
ent Emperor in 1868, 149. 

Mekak6, a concubine, 111-114. 

Men, old, dependence of, 133; 
amusements of, 136. 

Merchants, 262-269. 

Military service of women, 188- 
190, 208, 223. 

Missionary schools, 56. 

Miya ma^ri, the presentation of 
a child at the temple on the 
thirtieth day after birth, 3-6. 

Mochi, a kind of rice cake, 5*, 24 9 
25, 65. 

Momotaro, 33. 

Morality, standards of, 76. 

Mother, her relation to children, 
99-102. 

Mother-in-law, 84, 87 ; O Kiku's, 
74. 

Mukojima, 191, 295. 

Musical instruments, 41, 42. 

Names, 3. 

Nara, 247. 

Nikko, 231, 245. 

No, a pantomimic dance, 292, 293. 

Norimono, a palanquin, 30. 



332 



INDEX. 



Noshi, a bit of dried fish, usually 
folded in colored paper, given 
with a present for good luck, 
2. 

Nursing the sick, 101. 

O, an honorific used before many- 
nouns, and before most names 
of women, 20. 

O Ba San, grandmother, 124. 

O Ba San, aunt, 124. 

Obi, a girdle or sash, 60. 

Occupations of the blind, 42 ; of 
the court, 143-150, 165, 166; 
of the daimios' ladies, 175- 
180 ; of the Empress, 156-166 ; 
of old people, 136, 120-122, 
124-128 ; of old samurai wo- 
men, 223, 224; of servants, 
299, 304, 306, 308-315, 318 ; of 
women, 108-110, 85-103, 242- 
256, 279-292, 306, 318; of 
young girls, 21-34, 38-47. 

O Haru, 211-213. 

Oishi, 198, 214. 

Oji, 296. 

O Jo Sama, young lady, 20. 

O kaeri, " Honorable return," a 
greeting shouted by the atten- 
dant, upon the master's or 
mistress's return to the house, 
100, 315. 

O Kaio, 324-326. 

O Kiku's marriage and divorce, 
73, 74. 

Old age, privileges of, 120, 122, 
123 ; provision for, 134. 

Old men, 133, 136. 

O miage, a present given on re- 
turning from a journey or 
pleasure excursion, 274. 
Oni, a devil or goblin, 33. 
Onoye, 210-213. 

Palace, new, 151-153. 

Parents , duties to, 134 ; respect 

for, 133. 
Parents-in-law, 84, 87. 
Peasant women, 108, 240-261. 
Peasantry, 228-240. 
Physicians' fees, 204. 
Pilgrims, 241, 242. 
Pillow, 89. 

Pleasure excursions, 99. 
Poems of a hundred poets, 26. 
Poetry, 26, 148-150. 



Presents, 96; after a wedding, 
65; at betrothal, 60; at miya 
maeri, 4 ; at weddings, 62 ; 
how wrapped, 2 ; in honor of 
a birth, 1 ; of eggs, 2, 5 ; of 
money, 204, 205 ; on returning 
from a journey, 274 ; on the 
thirtieth day after birth, 5 ; to 
servants, 311, .315. 

Prostitutes. See Joro. 

Prostitution, houses of, 114, 214, 
290. 

Purity of Japanese women, 216- 
219. 

Retirement from business, 133. 

Retirement of emperors, 134. 

Revenge, 198, 210-214. 

Revolution of 1868, 76, 221. 

Rice, red bean, 3, 5, 65. 

Rin, one tenth of a sen, or about 
one mill, 240. 

Ronin, a samurai who has lost 
his master and owes no alle- 
giance to any daimio, 198, 213. 

Sakaki, the Cleyera Japonica, 

98. 
Sake, wine made from rice, 22, 

63, 136, 296 ; white, 29. 
Sama, or San, an honorific placed 

after names, equivalent to 

Mr., Mrs., or Miss, 20, 73, 124, 

136, 232, 283, 284, 304. 
Samisen, a musical instrument, 

42, 127, 277, 286. 
Samurai, the military class, 42, 

75, 76, 105, 169, 174, 175, 180, 

196-227,232, 263, 302, 303, 307, 

319; character of, 197-207; 

spirit of, 199, 205. 
Samurai girls in school, 226. 
Samurai women, character of, 

207-223 ; present work of, 223- 

327. 
Satsuma rebellion, the, 222. 
School system, the, 50. 
School, the Peeress's, 150, 162, 

163, 182. 
Schools, missionary, 56. 
Self-possession of Japanese girls, 

47. 
Self-sacrifice, 214-219. 
Sen, one hundredth part of a 

yen, value about one cent, 240, 

273, 298. 



INDEX. 



333 



Servants, characteristics of, 299- 
302; duties of, 302-315; in 
employ of foreigners, 299-302 ; 
number employed, 310, 311 ; 
position of, 302-310 ; wages of, 
311. 

Sewing, 23, 94. 

Shinto, 4, 155. 

Shogi, Japanese chess, 136. 

Shogun, the Tycoon, the Vice- 
roy, or so-called temporal ruler 
of Japan under the feudal sys- 
tem, 155, 169, 171, 173, 176, 
185, 186, 191, 194, 197, 208, 224, 
231-234, 292; daughter of, 
176, 194. 

Shogunate, 155, 190, 192, 221, 222. 

Shoji, sliding windows covered 
with paper, 23, 71. 

Shopping, 264-268. 

Sho-sei, a student, 308. 

Silk-mosaic, 95, 192. 

Silkworms, 95, 246. 

Soroban, an abacus, 266-268. 

Sumida River, 173, 295. 

Tabi, a mitten-like sock, 13. 

Ta ta, a baby's word for sock or 

tabi, 16. 
Taiko Sama. See Toyotomi. 
Tea, 91, 92 ; ceremonial, 44, 136, 

176. 
Tea-gardens, 247. 
Tea-houses, 250-255. 
Teachers' pay, 204. 
Teaching. See Instruction. 
Teeth, blackened after marriage, 

63. 
Temple, 4, 120, 129, 240. 
Theatre, 33, 99, 292-294. 
Titles used in families, 20. 
Toes, prehensile, 15. 
Toilet apparatus, 30. 
Tokaido, 241. 
Tokonoma, the raised alcove in 

a Japanese room, 44. 
Tokugawa, 29, 151, 155, 231. 
Tokyo, 49, 69-71, 108, 115. 
" Tokyo Mail," 231. 
Tombs, visits to, 98. 



Toyotomi Hideyoshi, 232. 
Training-school for nurses, 158. 

Utsunomiya, 70, 71. 
Uyeno Park, 296. 

Virtue, Japanese and Western 
ideas of, 215-219. 

Visits, after marriage, 63 ; in 
honor of a birth, 1, 2 ; New 
Year's, 25 ; to parents, 98 ; to 
tombs of ancestors, 98. 

Wakamatsu, 208, 222. 

Wedding. See Marriage. 

Widows, childless, 123. 

Wife, childless, 102 ; duties of, 
85-99 ; in great houses, 92 ; 
relation to husband, 84; re- 
lation to parents-in-law, 84 ; 
social relations, 91. 

Woman's Christian Temperance 
Union, 114. 

Women, in the city, 279-298 ; 
occupations of, 85-103, 108- 
110, 242-256, 306, 318 ; position 
of, 17-22, 35, 36, 57, 65-68, 76- 
88, 90, 91, 93, 99-118, 120-124, 
132, 133, 139, 143, 145, 146, 148, 
168, 189, 190, 208, 216-219, 223- 
227, 242-247, 260, 261, 279, 292, 
298, 306, 318 ; purity of, 216- 
219. 

Women, old, appearance of, 119, 
122, 124, 126; examples of, 
124, 126-129 ; in Japanese pic- 
tures, 132. 

Yamato Dake", 215. 

Yasaku, 324 ; marriage and di- 
vorce of, 69. 

Yase, 243, 244. 

Yashiki, a daimio's mansion and 
grounds, 169, 171, 173, 311, 
313. 

Yedo. See Tokyo. 

Yoshii, an adopted son, 104. 

Yumoto, 245. 

Zori. a straw sandal, 13. 



